NOTES AND QUERIES. 431 
rope was passed around it from behind, and the hounds, having been 
whipped off, the deer was taken upon the platform, where it was viewed 
with considerable interest by the passengers. The other instance referred 
to is of more recent date, and caused some amusement in the locality where 
it happened. A young gentleman farmer, fond of “ riding to hounds” and 
of relating his wonderful exploits in the hunting-field, found himself in 
close proximity to a “stag at bay,” when, being anxious, I suppose, “to take 
the game alive,” he dismounted. On approaching the deer, it immediately 
struck out with its fore feet most vigorously and felled him to the ground, 
cutting his face severely, and stunning him for a short time.—G. B. CorBin 
Ringwood). 
Habits of the Squirrel.—In the note under this head (p. 384) I had 
almost hoped to see some reference to a previous communication (p. 229) 
touching the destruction of the eggs of Picus major by the Squirrel; for I 
am decidedly one of the ‘“‘ tender-hearted people who hesitate to believe in 
the egg-stealing propensity of the Squirrel.” And, certainly, if the 
evidence to be adduced on the side of the prosecution be no more really 
evidence than what is alleged by Capt. S. G. Reid, no man in the possession 
of ordinary common sense will ever believe it. “The facts alleged are (1), 
that a single fresh egg was found in a certain nest; (2), that a week after 
the nest was empty ; (3), that at the same date, wedged into a crack in the 
wood of another tree thirty yards distant, and near its top, an egg of Picus 
major was found, “perfectly sound, except for a small tooth-mark in the 
side.” Literally there is nothing else in the statement relevant to the 
charge made against the Squirrel as an egg-stealer. No Squirrel is 
mentioned as having been seen near the tree, no proof is alleged that the 
small mark on the egg was a tooth-mark at all; but the writer states that 
he had “ known Squirrels to remove the eggs from the nest of the Long- 
eared Owl,’—one wonders if on equally conclusive evidence,—and that 
there is “no doubt Squirrels were the delinquents on this occasion.” One 
day this summer I found three Starlings’ eggs and two Sparrows’ eggs on 
my lawn, not twenty yards distant from the site of a colony of Starlings 
and House Sparrows breeding in the ivy, and ivy-sheltered partitioned boxes 
placed for their use, within a few feet of my dining-room window. If I 
chose to write “ Notes on Natural History” on the same lines as this charge 
against the Squirrel is laid down, I might have written as follows :—*« Kgg- 
stealing by the Cuckoo.—This bird has this year once and again seated 
itself on the ridge of a gable above my bed-room window, and there 
repeated its well-known notes many times in succession [a fact]. In the 
ivy, within three to five yards of its station, were five nests of Starlings, 
and any number of Sparrows’ nests. ‘There is no doubt,’ allowing for 
the Cuckoo's recorded predilection for eggs of other birds (whether for the 
alleged purpose of ‘sweetening his voice’ or no, does not signify), that the 
