7IO SCIURID^— SCIURUS 



is also fond of several kinds of fungi, including mushrooms, and 

 will tear off old bark of trees in search of them. Von Tschudi 

 long ago declared that the Alpine Squirrels dig up truffles, 

 and this observation was repeated for Britain at Elveden, 

 Suffolk, by the late Prof A. Newton and one of his brothers, 

 and in Ireland by Mr P. Bicknell. 



In eating, the Squirrel holds its food to its mouth with its 

 fore-paws. In gnawing through the hard shells of nuts it 

 displays much skill. Captives observed by Mr Bonhote always 

 held a nut by the larger end and nibbled a hole into the smaller 

 end ; when the hole was large enough, they inserted their lower 

 incisors, and with a sharp jerk of the head a piece of the shell 

 was broken off, an action repeated until the kernel could be 

 extracted. The scales of fir-cones are bitten off, and the seeds 

 devoured ; the presence of fossil fir-cones in the late pliocene 

 Forest Bed of Norfolk gnawed in this way has been mentioned 

 above (p. 695). 



Sometimes the terrestrial foraging expeditions are carried 

 far afield, as must needs be the case when it journeys from one 

 wood or plantation to another, and Barrett- Hamilton knew one 

 to be caught in a trap set for rats in a field of cabbage. It has 

 been frequently encountered amongst the heather of the Scotch 

 moors, and a number of instances of such wanderings were 

 collected by Mr Harvie- Brown while compiling his paper on 

 the Squirrel in Great Britain. From these it appears that 

 single Squirrels have strayed for distances of at least 9 miles 

 from the nearest trees, so that it is not surprising to find that 

 newly wooded districts are rarely long neglected by this species, 

 as has so frequently been shown in Scotland, Wales, and 

 Ireland. Sometimes wandering Squirrels find themselves in 

 very unexpected quarters, as after entering houses by their 

 chimneys. The most remarkable escapade is that related by 

 Mr A. E. Knox of a Highlander, who, never having seen a 

 Squirrel before, came across one on an open moor. It is 

 doubtful whether man or Squirrel was the more surprised : the 

 latter, to avoid the Highlander's dog, promptly climbed to the 

 top of the man's head; the Highlander, greatly alarmed, 

 believed his assailant to be "a thing wi' horns." It appears 

 that roads, walls, rails, or hedgerows, and even railway bridges 



