NOTES AND QUERIES. 885 
however, a day arrived when he did not appear to the well-known signal— 
his love of nuts had brought him within reach of the gardener’s long-muzzled 
gun. To those living in the country, on the other hand, especially in well- 
wooded districts, from the first leaf of summer to the last of autumn the 
Squirrel is constantly to be seen, whether chattering in the pine-tops, 
taking those flying leaps from tree to tree with such rapid movement as to 
bring to mind his American congener, or watching with the brightest of 
eyes from the sheltering foliage of a nut-bush the approach of his sworn 
enemy the irate gardener. In the early morning, too, in summer he may 
be seen wending his way across the lawn, with tail uplifted to avoid the dew. 
The Squirrel, like all rodents, is very prolific, but is unlike most of the 
order, however, in building its nest in a tree, placed generally near the top 
of some evergreen, which serves the double purpose of concealment and 
protection from the winter gales. The exterior of the nest, although not 
unlike that of the Magpie, is far more comfortable within, for as the Squirrel 
generally passes the colder winter months in a state of partial hybernation 
warm materials are required to keep up the animal heat so necessary to 
healthy vitality; in the nest, too, the provident animal has a store of its 
favourite food, nuts and different kinds of cones, Squirrels delighting in the 
seeds they contain. This county being celebrated for its nuts, either in 
the hedges or cultivation, is consequently a land of plenty to them; they have 
no difficulty in layiug in their winter stores. I recollect an old oak-tree in 
the garden of a house I lived in once, the rugged bark of which was filled 
with nut-shells, the débris of a Squirrel’s feast, for the ingenious animal to 
save itself the trouble of holding the nuts placed them firmly in the deep 
furrows of the bark whilst the process of gnawing was going on. The 
Squirrel is very destructive to most kinds of conifer, gnawing off the young 
shoots; they will also in dry weather attack the shoots of other trees, 
particularly the horse-chestnut. This predilection of theirs for the pine- 
shrubs imparts a turpentinous flavour to the flesh, for although the Squirrel 
is not eaten with us, to the inhabitants of other European countries it is 
looked upon as a delicacy. I remember once, whilst shooting Woodcocks in 
the forests of the Morbihan, Lower Brittany, one evening on returning from 
“la chasse,” meeting my host in a state of suppressed excitement; on 
enquiring the cause of so much feeling, he told me that he had made 
“ orande chasse,” desiring me at the same time to inspect the “ gibier,” so 
in we went to the “salon” of Monsieur. ‘ There,” cried Monsieur de F., 
pointing to the ceiling; looking up I saw hanging from two nails an old 
Crow and a Squirrel ; a feeble grin was my only reply. So pleased, how- 
ever, was he that I was asked as a great treat to dine with him that evening 
“pour manger l’écureuil.” In declining the proffered hospitality I thought 
it might have been worse if it had been the aged specimen of Corvus corone. 
The tail of the Squirrel undergoes a curious change in colour as age 
