SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 229 



they completely ignored the presence of a stranger. Then they 

 will affect to be excessively frightened at their audacity, and hide 

 palpitating behind ^ tree-trunk, scrambling round, however, in a 

 minute to gaze at you with their large liquid eyes and to spit and 

 swear from their open mouth, with the points of their little brown 

 teeth just showing. Squirrels are adorable. They should be 

 placed in the first rank of native beasts which we have every 

 justification for cherishing and helping to increase and multiply. 

 There are countless stories of their charm and intelligence when 

 they are obtained quite young and carefully tamed. It is little 

 or no use catching them after they are grown up, as they are then 

 untameable, and can bite very severely. 



The squirrel has apparently existed in England since the 

 Pleistocene period, and is abundant everywhere in this country 

 and in the wooded parts of Wales. Although existing in many 

 parts of Ireland, it is scarce there ; and its presence in that 

 distressful country, which Nature has treated so badly in the 

 distribution of mammals, is ascribed to human introduction. In 

 the north of England and in Scotland the existence of the squirrel 

 seems to have been subject to vicissitudes. It was originally 

 unknown in the Lake District, and perhaps did not exist there 

 as far back as a hundred years ago, but it has now become fairly 

 common in the woodlands of Cumberland and Westmoreland. 

 The squirrel has always been known in the Lowlands of Scotland, 

 but in the Highlands its existence has fluctuated. No doubt, as 

 Mr. Lydekker points out, the complete disappearance of squirrels 

 in some Scotch counties has followed frosts of unusual severity ; 

 while, of course, everywhere in this region its presence depends 

 on whether the country is forested or quite without trees. 



Outside these islands the common squirrel extends right 

 across Europe and Asia to Japan. It is found in the north 

 of Africa (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis) wherever there are 

 woods ; throughout Temperate Asia, north of the Himalayas ; 

 but is absent seemingly from Italy and the Crimea. Its range 

 on the north just about reaches the Arctic Circle. As it depends 

 absolutely on the existence of trees, it is but little met with in 



