Quadrupeds. 4051 



Should these somewhat desultory remarks draw attention to the 

 subject to which they refer, their insertion in the ' Zoologist' will 

 perhaps be not altogether useless. 



J. H. GURNEY. 

 Easton, Norfolk, August 26, 1853. 



Notes on Squirrels. — Amongst the great numbers of these active little animals, 

 which live here in quiet and security, is a variety which I have never met with else- 

 where, although it may probably occur in other places. This variety, which is as nu- 

 merous as the common kind, has the whole of the tail of a flaxen or straw colour; and 

 this, when elevated above the head and waved about, gives the animals the appear- 

 ance, when seen at a distance, of holding up a white plume or parasol. There appears 

 to be no other difference between the two kinds, and whether this arises from any par- 

 ticular age, I am unable to say. The squirrels may be seen here both in summer and 

 winter ; even when snow is on the ground, they appear to be almost as much out and 

 about as in the warmer months, feeding chiefly upon the beech-mast, of which there 

 are great quantities hanging on and fallen from the trees, and serving as food not only 

 for the squirrels, but also for large flocks of wood-pigeons which frequent this neigh- 

 bourhood, and are then congregated together. The other day, whilst walking round 

 the lawn, several squirrels crossed the path, and one, at some distance off, appeared to 

 be encumbered with something it was carrying in its mouth, and which greatly im- 

 peded its progress. After trying to intercept the squirrel, I got near enough to see 

 that it was a large mushroom it was carrying to a neighbouring tree, up which it ran 

 in its usual spiral mode of ascent, and having reached a place of safety, began its re- 

 past. Of squirrels betaking themselves to such luxuries, I was not before aware, as 

 there was such a superabundant quantity of their usual kind of food at hand ; but on 

 inquiring of the keeper whether he had before observed such to be the case, he informed 

 me that when he had lately lived near a large wood some few miles distant, of which 

 I had formerly rented the shooting, he had frequently seen the squirrels carrying up 

 the trees the mushrooms which grew in the cover and adjacent fields, and which they 

 seemed to eat with a proper degree of relish. But, as has been before observed in 

 discussing the question of food in former numbers of the 'Zoologist,' it is strange 

 what apparently unnatural food is resorted to, and the capricious appetite of various 

 kinds of animals. In many places it is thought strange to see squirrels out of their 

 drays in hard winter weather, but here, as I have before mentioned, they are constantly 

 to be met with and tracked at all times, even in the snow, when they appear just as 

 lively and free from suffering from the severity of the weather, as in the summer months. 

 They come down the large beech trees, and scratch away the snow-covered moss at 

 the bottom, where they find plenty of mast for their support, besides whatever other 

 store of food they may have collected and put by for special occasions. They however 

 do much mischief to growing fir and larch trees by biting off their leading shoots, as 

 well as by destroying vast quantities of nuts and filberts before they are nearly ripe, 

 and to obtain which they do not hesitate to run up the fruit-trees planted against the 

 outer walls, and down the other side into the garden itself, making sad havock with 



