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On the Habits of the Red Squirrel. 
is rather difficult to make out from casual play, mated pairs 
often playing with each other outside the breeding season. 
It appears to be mostly male and female chasing each other, 
stopping to face each other almost nose touching nose for a 
few seconds, and then continuing, chaser and chased frequently 
changing place. They often roll over and over in grips, 
biting at each other and squealing all the time. From time 
to time during the courtship, which usually commences soon 
after the winter coat is donned and continued during the 
building of the drey and also during play, the male runs up 
to the top of a thorn tree and sitting bolt upright on its hind 
legs, scans the surrounding countryside for danger. The 
courting is usually carried out in very early morning. 
Habits. — These Red Squirrels definitely do not ‘ hibernate ' 
during the winter months, as I have frequently recorded their 
occurrence abroad at all times of the winter (see ‘ Squirrels 
not Retired by December/ The Naturalist, March, 1931 ; 
my ‘Field Notes for 1931/ Proceedings Liverpool Naturalists 
Field Club, 1931 ; ‘ Country-Side/ Nature Records, Spring 
and Summer, 1931, Spring, 1932). There is no time of the 
winter- that I have not found them abroad, even when thick 
hoar frost covers the ground and when the temperature is 
below freezing, though individuals vary and some will sleep 
in their dreys through the colder weather. They are abroad 
before daybreak, and on Christmas morning 1930 I watched 
one feeding beneath its drey an hour before sunrise in a copse 
that was then pitch dark. I had already walked by it without 
seeing it when its movements, as it bolted, disclosed its. 
presence. Though abroad before daylight I have not found 
them abroad after dusk. I have frequently seen them feeding 
during heavy rain on spring and summer mornings, but their 
tails get very wet and heavy and the squirrels are continually 
washing themselves and shiver much from the cold. They 
feed chiefly on beechmast here, because hazel does not occur 
where they breed. They prefer beechmast to acorns. 
They are, on the whole, very tame, and individuals learn 
to recognise particular people with whose presence they become 
associated. They will take chocolate and eat it with relish, 
and two or three people make a regular habit of feeding them 
with nuts, chiefly Brazils, which they take from their hands 
and often climb on to their knees and shoulders in a similar 
manner to the grey squirrels in Regent's Park, though not 
quite so confidingly. They are always far more tame in early 
morning than at mid-day, and seem to get more wary when 
more people get about. The female is always shyer than 
the male. 
They frequently drink in summer, despite assertions to 
the contrary by some writers. They lap the water like a 
The Naturalist 
