The Squirrel. 179 



done in this manner, the same handle will last a life-time, and be softer and 

 smoother for the hand than the rustic cudgels that besom-makers tail their 

 faggots with, and sell to cockneys for garden brooms. 

 Staffordshire, March, 1843. 



Art. VI. The Squirrel. By Charles Waterton, Esq. 



Horticulture and zoology are contiguous provinces. Surely, 

 then, no one in these days of liberality can find fault with Mr. 

 Wighton for straying a little out of bounds. Let him not fear 

 the apparition of a birch rod. 



If squirrels injure the shoots of my spruce firs, wliich they 

 are known to frequent, trivial indeed must be the damage, and 

 quick the reparation by old Dame Nature, for the trees bear no 

 marks of aggression. 



Had the squirrel been wild, in the wild Avoods, at the time that 

 Mr. Wighton saw it eat the birds, I should not hesitate to pro- 

 nounce that individual squirrel to be carnivorous, because I 

 believe that Mr. Wighton would only state what he conceived 

 to be "correct." Still, we must alloAV that there are exceptions 

 to all rules. Don Quixote put Sancho Panza in mind that 

 summer did not always set in with the appearance of the first 

 swallow. Sir William Jardine shot a barn owl in the very act 

 of hooting. Probably, neither the baronet, nor any body else, 

 will ever perform a similar feat, for barn owls do not hoot. 



I gather from Mr. Wighton's communication of January 3. 

 [p. 117.], that his squirrel was in captivity when it partook of a 

 carnal repast. This single fact at once precludes the possibility 

 of the squirrel family being raised to the rank of carnivorous 

 animals. The incarceration only of "a few days" might have 

 injured the prisoner seriously, either in his nervous system, or 

 in his gastric powers, or in his olfactory sensibilities. Now, a 

 sudden dei*angement in all, or even in any one, of these compo- 

 nent parts of a squirrel's frame, might have affected his health 

 sufficiently to have induced him to try a change of larder ; and, 

 should this have been the case, I don't know a nicer morsel for 

 the alterative system than a tender and a well-fed swallow. 

 Under existing circumstances (loss of liberty, to wit), I am not 

 at all astonished that Mr. Wighton's squirrel should dine on 

 bird, raw or roasted we are not informed ; even though the 

 said squirrel were well sujjplied, on the same table, " with his 

 favourite kind of food." 



I wish we knew more than we do of the carnivorous propen- 

 sities, or the want of them, in certain animals. We might then be 

 able to account tolerably well for many strange occurrences, which 

 every now and then puzzle us so much, in the workings of zoo- 



N 4 



