Mr Rarvic-Brown on the Squirrel in Great Britain. 177 



tion is given regarding the destructive powers of the squirrel, 

 and nowhere can I find anything said in its favour. 



Amongst the food-stuffs of the squirrel I may instance the 

 following. It might prove interesting to make the list as 

 complete as possible. 



Various kinds of mushrooms and agarics, * including 

 truffles, for which they scrape in the earth below trees.i* It 

 is not yet known how many species of fungi are used by the 

 squirrel as food, nor all the names of them. Some, however, 

 and especially the red agarics, appear to be rejected as food, 

 and only carried by the animals and placed in clefts of the 

 trees. " They are placed in the fork of a branch with the 

 stalk down, like an umbrella set up to dry."| 



This is probably simply exhibiting an inherent curiosity 

 common to most animals (see further on, p. 179). The 

 smaller fungi which cover the bark of trees are also eaten 

 by squirrels, as has been pointed out to me by the late Sir 

 Thomas Moncrieffe, Bart., who, in one of his last letters to 

 me, stated that he intended further to investigate this matter, 

 with a view to discovering whether or not any of the dam- 

 age done to trees did not result from this fondness for these 

 minute fungi. In nibbling at these close-growing superficial 

 fungi on the branches and shoots of trees, the squirrels' 

 teeth might reasonably be supposed to penetrate deeper till 

 it affected the bark itself. Mr E. M. Barrington has also 

 witnessed the squirrel descend a larch tree, and picking up a 

 mushroom (species not noticed) run up and eat it leisurely 

 on a branch. Mr Barrington also notes, " they eat many of 

 the toadstools in our pleasure grounds."§ 



Of seeds and nuts and kernels of stone fruits, a large 

 variety occurs, amongst which I may mention the following : 

 Seeds of apples, || fir-cones, burr- thistle, agermony, horehound, 



* Personal observation and that of correspondents. Early notice of the 

 fact in "Zool.," vol. v., p. 1820. 



+ Von Tschudi, " Thier. der Alpenw(4t," and "Zoologist," 1865, p. 9560. 



X Mr J. Anderson in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, vol. vii., Part 1., p. 127. See 

 also op. cit. (1879). 



§ Further vide Science Gossip (1865), p. 40 ; 1866, p. 138 (squirrels eating 

 toadstools). 



II F. Norgate, in lit. 



VOL. VI. M 



