708 SCIURID^— SCIURUS 



only the soft parts, but sometimes the kernels are devoured. 

 There can be no doubt that, when numerous, apart from its 

 depredations in gardens, it often causes serious damage to 

 plantations ; and, although the lover of nature may agree with 

 Sir H. Johnston, that its misdeeds are partially atoned for by 

 its fascinating appearance, the prudent forester will keep its 

 numbers from assuming inconvenient proportions. One of the 

 most conspicuous of its misdemeanours is its habit of attacking 

 the early leaf-shoots of the horse chestnut, or less frequently of 

 sycamores, which in spring appear to be very palatable to it, 

 and are ruthlessly torn from the tree and then thrown to the 

 ground. It is no less destructive to the young shoots and 

 leaves of the beech. Alston accused it of barking young 

 birches,^ and a number of authorities have shown that amongst 

 its gravest offences is the stripping off of whole areas of bark 

 right round a tree trunk, especially a conifer, at a distance of a 

 few feet of the top — thus damaging the leading shoots. This 

 it does to get at the inner bark. The resulting damage is 

 incurable in the case of conifers, the tops of which decay and 

 then turn over before the wind. Such crimes chiefly occur in 

 the new woods of replanted areas, and are most often seen in 

 trees of about twenty years' growth. Younger trees appear to 

 be exempt, as do also the older firs of native forests, in which 

 the more abundant cones supply a quantity of food. 



The loss from such attacks has been estimated at very 

 high figures in Scotch forests. At Glen Tanar, Aberdeenshire, 

 one thousand trees worth ;^500 were ruined in one year ; and 

 on the Cawdor Estates it was considered worth while to pay 

 over ^200 for the destruction of more than fourteen thousand 

 Squirrels between the years 1862 and 1878. 



But there is another count on which the Squirrel must 

 meet with our righteous condemnation, namely, for its destruc- 

 tion of the eggs and young of birds, concerning which the 

 testimony of many accusers is, despite a vigorous defence by 

 the many admirers of the culprit, now unquestionable. Thus 

 Captain Saville G. Reid charges it with robbing the nests of the 

 Long-eared Owl, and, on one occasion, of the Greater Spotted 



' Cocks finds young crabs (while still in more or less bush form, before they 

 become single stemmed trees), barked throughout at Poynetts. 



