178 Proceedings of the Royal Plujsical Society. 



haws, the seeds of caraway-sweets in confinement — the sugar 

 being rejected and the seeds eaten,— hazel-nuts and filberts, 

 etc. ; acorns, beech-nuts (or beechmast), kernels of apricot,* 

 plum, etc. ; walnuts, etc.f 



Of berries, fruits, etc., amongst others — blackberries, straw- 

 berries, bilberries, briar, juniper. J 



Shoots and buds of fir, larch, spruce (not so commonly), 

 chestnut, sycamore. 



Inner bark of fir, larch, young birch, silver fir, poplar. § 



Besides the above they are apparently fond of a few other 

 odds and ends. Mr T. Milne, forester in Glen Tanar, writes 

 me that he has " often trapped squirrels with a piece of fried 

 bacon, which they appeared to relish." They are accused of 

 eating birds' eggs and young birds, and having other carni- 

 vorous inclinations, but that will be now fully discussed. 



DAMAGE TO GAME, BIRDS' EGGS, ETC. 



The question of to what extent the squirrel is destructive 

 to birds' eggs has several times before now come up for dis- 

 cussion. The results of my correspondence and search into 

 the subject is, that by far the larger number of individuals 

 who have had ample opportunities of observing the squirrel 

 in Scotland, either deny that the damage so done is appre- 

 ciable, or state that no instance of the squirrel eating eggs 

 has ever been witnessed by them. Mr Eobert Mackintosh, 

 gamekeeper, GrandtuUy Castle, never knew them to do any 

 harm to game, or destroy eggs, but he says : " I have seen 

 them play with the empty shells of wood-pigeons' eggs, but 

 never was certain that they broke them. Never saw them 

 touch pheasants' eggs." On the other hand, there cannot be 

 a shadow of a doubt that eggs are destroyed and eaten by 

 squirrels occasionally. My friend Mr A. Burn-Murdoch gives 



* Auct. Captain Dunbar-Brander. 



t Actual observation of squirrels burying nuts and walnuts, and their 

 inodus operandi described (Henry H. Higgins, "Nature," vol. xv., 1876, p. 

 117). 



X Journal of Agriculture, 1865, p. 471. 



§ The American species — Sciurus Hudsonicus Pallas— is recorded as eating 

 jlowers, especially cherry blossoms (F. H. Storer, Bussey, Institution of 

 Harvard University, in " Nature, " vol. xiii., p. 26). 



