Sucklers. 9481 



young birds, used for making the hole in the egg, was very con- 

 spicuous." — P. 16. 



Mr. Wolley's is a name fraught with the pleasantest recollections to 

 every reader of the 'Zoologist': there never lived a more careful 

 observer, or one more capable of placing a lucid record of his obser- 

 vations before the public. 



Another charm in Mr. Wolley's writings is their scrupulous truth- 

 fulness : as you read you feel assured that, however thrilling the situa- 

 tion, however exciting the narrative, you never for a moment discredit 

 the narrator: he carries you with him in the minutest detail, and you 

 feel that the picture he is drawing owes no particle of its vivid colouring 

 to the imagination. This is a rare quality indeed. How greatly it is 

 wanting in many of our life-histories of animals. 



Edward Newman. 



On the Habits of the Squirrel. By Edward R. Alston, Esq. 



DoRiNG the past winter three of these beautiful and interesting little 

 animals have favoured us with more of their company than is usual 

 with a species usually so shy, and I have consequently had a good 

 opportunity of observing their habits at that season. 



The first of these squirrels, a very gray one, which I shall call 

 No. 1, was first observed, about the middle of last November, feeding 

 on the fallen mast under some beech-trees, about thirty yards from 

 one of the windows of our house in the country. Some filberts were 

 laid out for it, and before long it was seen to come back and feed on 

 them. Next morning it returned with a friend, squirrel No. 2, a more 

 beautiful and apparently younger animal, of a much redder tint. The 

 supply of nuts being kept up, these two came almost every day until 

 the beginning of December, when squirrel No. 3 made his appearance, 

 a fine large specimen, not so gray as No. 1, and adorned with a mag- 

 nificent brush. About the same time No. 2 disappeared, and has 

 never since been seen, but the other two continued their visits until 

 I came to town in the beginning of January, and I hear that they have 

 been seen since then. They onl}' absented themselves when the snow 

 was pretty deep on the ground, or when the frost was severe; 

 a sprinkling of snow in the end of November was not sufficient to 

 drive them to their hybernariums, but they both disappeared a day or 

 two before the 16th of December, when a snow-storm came on, and 

 nothing was seen of them until the 29th, shortly after a thaw. The 

 VOL. XXIII. O 



