THE BRITISH OR LIGHT-TAILED SQUIRREL 719 



unlikely, it will prove probably to be a most formidable rival for our 

 native species to face. A good account of the present status of this 

 immigrant in Britain has been given recently by Boyd Watt {Field, 

 I2th June 1915, 1044). From this it would appear that Mr G. S. Page, 

 of New York, first liberated five of them in Bushey Park in 1889, but 

 although one seen at Molesey in January 1909 may have been a 

 descendant of these, the stock appears to have died out. They were 

 next introduced, with embarrassing success, in Woburn Park, where 

 "they increased so rapidly that it became desirable to reduce their 

 numbers, and it is stated that about 1000 were killed during a recent 

 winter, and 300 in one week." Steele Elliott, writing to Boyd Watt in 

 July 1914, says that " in Bedfordshire the grey squirrel is numerous in 

 the Woburn district and very common within a few miles of that centre. 

 It has already spread north as far as Bedford, and other equally distant 

 localities in limited numbers." It is now fairly common in Bucks, and 

 specimens have been taken in Hertfordshire. Couples from Woburn 

 were liberated in Regent's Park by the Zoological Society and these, 

 possibly augmented by escaped pets, have greatly increased in numbers 

 and have spread to Hampstead and Highgate. In Regent's Park, 

 although still common, they are said to be " now disappearing, possibly 

 from an excessive production of males" [Official Guide to the Gardens, 

 13th ed., 1915, 72). They are also to be found in Kensington Gardens 

 and in Hyde Park. Other specimens from Woburn were turned out in 

 Kew Gardens about 1905, and these seem to have spread to Richmond 

 Park. At Kew, they are stated to have killed out or driven away all 

 the native squirrels, but beyond this they seem to have caused little 

 damage. On the other hand, the progeny of about thirty, also from 

 Woburn, liberated at Scampston Hall, Rillington, Yorkshire, multiplied 

 and spread so rapidly, and were found to be " so destructive that most 

 of them have been got rid of after three years' constant warfare " (St 

 Quintin, Country Life, 17th October 1914, 532). In Dumbartonshire, 

 the species has been present since 1892 (Paterson, Glasgow Naturalist, 

 1912, 136; Boyd Watt, ibid., 1913, 40), and it seems now to be in 

 possession of a strip of country there, measuring about 20 miles long 

 \)y 5 miles broad. During the winter of 1916-17 one appeared in 

 Dalmeny Park, Linlithgowshire, coming to feed at the pheasant boxes. 

 It was probably an escape from the Scottish Zoological Gardens at 

 Corstorphine, where several have recently been at large (W. Evans, 

 in lit.). 



Boyd Watt says :— " As regards habits, the grey squirrel, like our 

 native brown species, has many offences laid to its charge, and the 

 judgment upon it is not always so lenient as that given above from 

 Kew Gardens. From Dumbartonshire we are told that it is very 

 destructive to the upper shoots of Scots pines. At Scampston Hall, 



