176 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



During the severe winter of 1878-79, squirrels were observed 

 for the first time on Donside, feeding upon the buds of spruce 

 trees. Cones, or the seeds of the cones, seems to be favourite 

 food when they can obtain them. In the winter of 1878-79, 

 during the severe frost they were busy with the cones in the 

 Asylum grounds at Murthly, where, as Dr Macintosh of 

 Murthly informs me, they have just arrived, the trees having 

 only lately attained a suitable age and size. 



Nor do squirrels confine their attacks to the pines and firs. 

 Many of the hardwoods suffer. Mr Malcolm Dunn, of Dal- 

 keith Gardens, writes to me : " We have plenty of evidence 

 in the Park here of the injury done by them to trees. Just 

 now (December 1878), in this severe storm, you will find one 

 in almost every plane tree ; and if you stand quietly and 

 observe his movements for a little while, you will see the 

 nimble little rogue leaping from twig to twig and biting off 

 the buds by the hundred — I may safely say hundreds daily, 

 as the snow below is thickly strewn with the debris. He 

 appears to eat only the tender heart of the buds, and to dis- 

 card the outer envelopes." 



A writer in The Field (November 20th, 1878), speaking of 

 the food of the squirrel, includes the young shoots of horse- 

 chestnut trees. He says also that in Nairn, twenty-year old 

 firs are attacked, and every third or fourth tree " ringed" round 

 by them where the branches radiate. Effect described : The 

 tree-tops rot and the wind breaks them over, but the writer does 

 not think much damage is done to old fir, that is, fir over fifty 

 years' growth, as in them they seem to " shred down the cones 

 and extract the seed." Trees under 5 feet, damaged, he con- 

 siders the work of roe or red-deer. If a 20-feet fir or spruce, 

 it is probably done by a wood-pigeon perching on it. But 

 this opens out a wide field for discussion, which I think is 

 hardly necessary in this place.* 



In the pages of the " Journal of Forestry "-f much informa- 



* I mean, — if the trees be weakened by the squirrels nibbling the circum- 

 ference of the bark near the top, wood-pigeons alighting thereon afterwards 

 will the more easily break them down by their weight. 



t Vide Journal of Forestry, June 1879, p. 88 — quotes Live-Stock Journal ; 

 also July 1879, p. 209, chestnut trees. 



