182 Proceedings of the Rayed Physical Society. 



rests upon a single statement of a single instance by a single 

 individual. 



It is only just, however, here to relate what additional 

 evidence I have of the carnivorous propensities of the species, 

 at the same time repeating that such records are rare and 

 decidedly exceptional, going to prove — I consider — that the 

 taste for eggs and young birds is not a natural, but only an 

 acquired and very exceptional one. Mr Peter Scott, already 

 mentioned in this paper, writes to me as follows : " As to 

 their taking game or eating carrion I am not sure, only I 

 have known of ugly things being found in their nests, such as 

 a pheasant's head, rabbits' and other kinds of bones." This 

 evidence appears to me in no way whatever to prove a carni- 

 vorous desire, but simply the gratification of that inherent 

 curiosity, mentioned above by Captain Dunbar - Brander. 

 Much more likely that a weasel, or stoat, or other carnivorous 

 animal slew the pheasant, and left the head lying, and that 

 our little friend, hajDpening to pass that way, or having watched 

 the weasel or stoat at its meal, descended afterwards from its 

 arboreal perch, and pouncing on the pheasant's head, bore it 

 away to its " dray." Mr Duncan Dewar, gamekeeper at 

 Eemony, Perthshire, during the severe winter of 1878-79, 

 found two cole tits in a squirrel's nest, which had crept in 

 for warmth and died there ; their flesh was quite dried up 

 and preserved by the frost, and left untouched by squirrels, 

 which were also in straits during the winter. 



It would be almost endless to multiply the evidence re- 

 lating to this part of our subject, or at least to go into 

 minute detail concerning it. Below, however, I give a list 

 of references in one journal alone — Science Gossip — if only 

 to show how voluminous is the literature.* 



* "Carnivorous Propensities, and Egg-eating and Nest-robbing," Science 

 Gossip (1871), pp. 131, 189, 214 (H. C, Sargent, Penkeith, near Warrington); 

 237, 238 (Rev. J. G. Wood); 256, 257 (seen to attack a young rabbit); 278 (E. 

 M. Barrington ; C. Kingsley, Eversby, Hants ; Grantly F. Berkeley, Alderney 

 Manor, Poole). 



Parallel Propensities of the grey squirrel of the United States, given in 

 Science Gossip (1872), p. 199 (Charles C. Abbott, Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.) ; 

 261 (reply to C. A.'s letter) ; Waterton quoted by H. C. Sargent against 

 carnal propensities of the squirrel in a wild state. 



