Ml' Harvic-Bvoiun on the Squirrel in Great Britain. 181 



statement that " where squirrels abound the ravages coni- 

 niitted by this (a certain) insect are greatest, and at the same 

 time where squirrels are most numerous, woodpeckers are 

 most scarce." Mr Michie then tells us : " In Strathspey, 

 about twenty years ago, woodpeckers were very numerous ; 

 the holes which they burrowed in the trunks of old trees may 

 be seen at the present day in hundreds, whilst now not a 

 single woodpecker is to be seen in the whole forest. About 

 the year 1840, the first squirrels were seen in Duthel Forest, 

 and now they are seen in hundreds, and appear on a rapid in- 

 crease." 



Further inquiry certainly brings out the fact that this is 

 the general belief amongst the old people of Inverness-shire 

 and the northern forests of Scotland. Sir Dudley Marjori- 

 banks writes {in lit.) : " The old people say the squirrel drove 

 away the red-headed woodpecker [i.e., Picits Major, L.] from 

 Guisachan. Certainly," continues Sir Dudley, " its holes in 

 the trees are very numerous, and yet I have never seen a 

 single specimen. I heard of one being seen in 1869, in the 

 spring." 



It seems quite unnecessary to criticise this at length. If 

 the first squirrel appeared in the neighbourhood only about 

 the year 1840, and Mr Michie wrote his paper in 1865, and if 

 woodpeckers were very numerous in Strathspey about twenty 

 years before, but " now are extinct, or nearly so," surely he 

 cannot mean to say that the extinction of the woodpeckers 

 took place by the squirrel's agency in such a short time. 

 Even supposing squirrels could always gain easy access to a 

 woodpecker's nest, I don't believe such could have taken 

 place. The great spotted woodpecker does not make a hole, 

 however, large enough to admit a squirrel's body. However 

 correct Mr Michie no doubt is as regards the damage done to 

 forests, and in relating the evidences of his own senses, I can- 

 not, in absence of fuller data, and the testimony to the con- 

 trary by many others, agree that the scarcity of woodpeckers 

 is owing to the abundance of squirrels. He states the two 

 facts of the scarcity of the one and abundance of the other, 

 and arrives at the somewhat hasty conclusion that the hitter 

 has produced the former state of things ; while all his proof 



