180 Proceedings of the Royal Phijsical Society. 



the birds themselves bear me out in my opinion, that squirrels 

 are harmless to eggs or young. A blackbird takes no more 

 notice of a squirrel than it does of a rabbit, but if it sees 

 a cat, weasel, or rat, it begins swearing " {in lit). 



Many correspondents, in some form or other, bear out the 

 above remarks by their experience ; only a very few instance 

 cases of damage done. One of the latter is as follows : In 

 Lauderdale squirrels appeared for the first time about 1838 

 or 1839, and were ordered to be destroyed about 1849, 

 which was done by the gamekeepers. At that time there 

 was nothing against them as game-destroyers, and conse- 

 quently they were not killed down very assiduously. About 

 the year 1856, when stories were told of their fighting with 

 birds, and taking their eggs, they got a little more attention, 

 and it was found to be true : they will take eggs, I am 

 obliged to Mr Peter Scott, gamekeeper, Thirlstane Castle, 

 Lauder, for the above (see also further on what is said of 

 their carnivorous propensities, p. 182). 



Mr C. Y. Michie, in his prize essay already quoted, 

 makes some startling statements regarding the carnivorous 

 propensities of the squirrel. The fact that squirrels do eat 

 birds' eggs occasionally is well known, and we have abund- 

 ant proof of the fact ; but I cannot, with all the evidence, 

 negative and positive, at my command, conclude that this 

 is a common practice, nor that the habit of devouring young 

 birds is freely indulged in by the species. I quote here Mr 

 Michie's observations on this head. He says : " Where 

 squirrels are most numerous, woodpeckers are most scarce. 

 In conversation with a sawyer, a man of observation, a few 

 days ago, he told me that near to a sawpit where he was 

 at work, a woodpecker hatched its eggs, and when the 

 young ones were nearly full-fledged, he observed one morn- 

 ing a squirrel enter the nest and carry off a young bird ; 

 this was again and again repeated by the squirrel till the 

 whole brood was destroyed. It is now," continues Mr 

 Michie, " pretty generally known that squirrels eat the eggs 

 of wood-pigeons, from which it may pretty safely be inferred 

 that the eggs of the woodpecker and other insect-devourers 

 will share a similar fate." Mr Michie also makes the further 



