uA) THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Cuckoo in question removed all the aforesaid eggs and dropped them where 
I found them.” Only this case would be the stronger of the two, because 
the Cuckoo could not put in an alibi. In reality, I am quite aware, from 
continual observation, that the deposit or dropping of these eggs of the 
Starling and the Sparrow, each “sound, except for a small bill-mark on the 
side,” is the natural result of the fierce squabbles that are of perpetual 
occurrence between, I am sorry to say, different pairs of the Starlings 
themselves, as well as between some of the Sparrows and some of the 
Starlings. More than once I have seen the combatant Starlings fall to the 
ground hampered by their mutual clutch. Once the clutch was so tenacious 
that, after the birds had fallen, and had been on the ground for perhaps two 
or three minutes, I went out, passed round the end of my house and along 
one side, and was all but touching the struggling pair with my fingers, before 
they consented to loose their grasp of each other. Possibly, during the 
past season, | have picked up twenty eggs under the circumstances named, 
besides noticing several others that had either been dropped or chucked out 
of the nest, and had fallen within a foot of the wall. A bird’s bill will 
make a single mark on the egg carried on its point, a feat I have seen per- 
formed more than once in my time. I very much doubt if a Squirrel— 
supposing one bent on such a practical joke as taking a Woodpecker's egg 
out of its deep nest in a tree, and carrying it to near the top of another 
tree, twenty feet above the ground—could perform the feat with no other 
cost to the egg besides a “small tooth-mark in its side.” On the whole, as 
regards any evidence that is alleged, Capt. Reid's note seems very like 
“ giving the poor Squirrel an ill name,” and acting, as regards his “ vow,” 
on the principle declared in the case of a dog in the same category.—J. C, 
Atkinson (Danby in Cleveland). 
Habits of the Squirrel.—On reading the interesting notes upon this 
lively little rodent (p. 384), I am sorry to find that the old accusation 
against it of destroying the young shoots of pine and other Conifer@ has 
been pretty well “ proven.” The destruction of pine-shoots, however, is 
not the only depredation for which it has to answer, if we may believe 
the observations that have from time to time been made of its carnivorous 
propensities in egg-sucking (p. 229), as well as killing young birds. Strange 
to say, although I have spent many hours, at different times, watching 
Squirrels, I never in a single instance saw one touch either eggs or young 
birds. I did once see an encounter between a Squirrel and Missel Thrush, 
but, as this bird is naturally pugnacious, and will attack any intruder who 
approaches its nest, | thought perhaps the Squirrel had wandered rather 
too closely, and was buffeted away by the over-anxious Thrush. The late 
Canon Kingsley informed me that, much as he loved the Squirrel, he had 
given orders that all seen on his grounds should be destroyed, as they 
undoubtedly had this carnivorous habit, and he preferred the birds to the 
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