189 



Zoological Miscellanea and Extracts from Correspondence. 

 By James Hakdy. 



Damage to teees by the "Water Vole. — Last year I planted 

 some Sycamore trees, about one inch in diameter, up a brook 

 side here ; and late in the autumn on taking hold of them to see 

 that they were firm in the ground, they came up. I did not pay 

 much attention to them ; I imagined that some idle boy had cut 

 them up and thrust them into the soil again. About a month 

 ago, I saw a Willow tree, about 8 feet high, lying on the ground 

 by the side of the same brook ; I pulled it across, and to my sur- 

 prise, I found that the roots had been gnawed in two ; the roots 

 were 3 inches in diameter. This, no doubt, was the work of the 

 "Water Eat. I then went to the Sycamore trees and found they 

 had been cut off by the same agents.— Eev. J. F. Bigge, Stam- 

 fordham, 22nd May, 1876. 



Mr Hughes, of Middleton Hall, mentions that the "Water Vole 

 has cut through several young ornamental Oaks near his place, 

 planted near a pond frequented by it. 



Squirrels. — Squirrels abound in Fowberry Park plantations, 

 alias Trickley "Wood, to such a degree, that the Earl of Tanker- 

 ville's keeper has received directions to diminish their numbers. 

 They are very hurtful to fir woods by destroying the tops of the 

 trees. They begin to bark the trees at the top, and then strip 

 off the bark downwards, to reach the hett,* which is their favour- 

 ite luxury. The keeper told me he had shot 1 5 within the last 

 week (June, 1876) ; and that in the back end of 1875, he had 

 destroyed 180. The Squirrel is a nervous timid animal. One 

 that he had caught and enclosed in a handkerchief, broke its 

 heart for terror. I once saw a Squirrel after running along the 

 ground before me, under a thicket of trees, take a fit at the foot 

 of a tree. After struggling for a time, it recovered, and ascended 

 the trunk, and then rattled away among the branches, as merrily 

 as if it had never succumbed to weakness. I had come upon it 

 by surprise. 



Erne or Sea Eagle (Haliaetus albicilla). — According to several 

 newspaper announcements, Mr Smith, gamekeeper, Marchmont, 

 when out shooting, on Feb. 7, 1877, observed a very large bird 



* Kell of an egg (in the Northumberland dialect) is the skin below the shell ; 

 of an orange, the skin enclosing the segments ; any thin skin or membrane . 



