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THE AMERICAN GREY SQUIRREL IN YORKSHIRE. 
Weel. Sh. QUINDIN ise, 
Scampston, E. Yorks. 
Ar the end of June 1906 I was given about three dozen of the 
American Grey Squirrel, bred at large in one of the home 
counties... I ought to have announced the fact at the time, 
but I did not realise how widely such small animals might 
stray from the place where they were enlarged. Now, how- 
ever, I find that they have established themselves at various 
places within a radius of four miles from Scampston, and I 
hear of one being killed near Pickering, which is over six miles 
away, ‘as the crow flies,’ with the River Derwent to cross! 
I therefore now think it time to appeal to readers of the 
‘Naturalist’ to do what they can to protect these beautiful 
little animals, which, I am assured, have been found quite 
innocent of any damage to woods and plantations in other parts 
of England, where they have been at liberty for some years. 
In my own case I the more gladly accepted these little ‘ aliens,’ 
as some disease closely resembling mange had reduced our 
native Red Squirrels almost to vanishing point. These Grey 
Squirrels seem to find a great deal of food on the ground, even 
in summer time. As far as I could tell, last June and July 
they were largely eating grass. But they readily avail them- 
selves of any hospitality offered, and mine regularly visit a 
food-box fixed to a prominent tree in sight of the windows, 
in which we place maize, hemp-seed, and nuts. Recent visitors 
to the London Zoological Gardens will have been charmed by 
the numbers and familiarity of the Grey Squirrels, which soon 
made their escape from the enclosure intended for them, but 
fortunately had the good sense to remain within the grounds, 
to the great entertainment of the children with their paper bags 
of nuts and buns. 
——— 
We regret to record the death of Mr. John Ward, of Longton, Staffs., 
a keen geologist, whose work we have more than once referred to in these 
columns. 
Mr. Clement Reid’s notes on ‘ Coast Erosion,’ read at the York Meeting 
of the British Association (See ‘ Naturalist,’ Sept., 1906, pp. 327-9), as well as 
Mr. E. R. Matthew's remarks thereon, appear in the November Geographical 
Journal. 
The Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge favours us with a copy of his paper 
“On some New and Rare British Arachnida,’ which has recently appeared in 
the ‘Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field 
Club.’ It includes particulars of several northern country records. 
1j07 February 1. 
