On the Habits of the Red Squirrel. 
55 
rabbit, and can swim. They do not bury the charming 
* nut -larders * each autumn as so picturesquely described by 
many writers of popular nature notes. They bury odd nuts 
here and there in the fallen leaves with no attempt at distinct 
hoards. The action is purely automatic instinct and shows 
no knowledge or design behind it. In winter the squirrel 
scratches indiscriminately amongst the fallen leaves for nuts, 
with no particular search for anything buried by itself ; I 
have no doubt that the squirrel has no knowledge that it 
buried nuts there in the autumn. Nuts naturally fall off 
trees into the dead leaves, and the squirrels are sure to find 
some there by scratching. They scratch because experience 
teaches them dt is the most productive way of finding food. 
They always peel off the husk with their canines before 
chewing the kernel, and hold it with their two ‘ thumbs 
to do so, spinning it round as the husk peels off. The main 
feeding spell seems shortly after daybreak: it is carried on 
casually to mid-day or a little after, but ceases in the afternoon. 
They do not touch fungi, at least to my knowledge, owing 
to an abundance of other food. 
The range of movement in winter is fairly wide and 
individual territories are considerably invaded. In fact, 
territory rights seem non-existent outside the breeding season. 
Occasionally, in autumn or winter, odd squirrels are seen in 
villages on the south edge of the city, where they do not 
occur normally. They frequently travel nearly a hundred 
yards on the ground, especially where the trees are thin or 
interspersed with meadowland. 
Their natural enemies seem few. Stoats and weasels 
cause trouble elsewhere but do not occur here. I have found 
no evidence of rats , r killing them, but in winter, when the 
area is frequently in possession of flocks of gulls and rooks, 
I have seen herring gulls and rooks attack individual squirrels, 
chiefly when the latter are covering distances on the ground, 
and in all cases the squirrels show extreme fear and make 
every effort to regain trees. It is quite possible for a herring 
gull to kill a squirrel. Skin disease has not broken out in 
recent years, but there seems to be a long cyclic increase and 
decrease, longer though than Middleton has shown with the 
voles (Journal of Ecology, Vol. XVII, No. i, and Vol. XIX, 
No. i). 
Relation to Grey Squirrel. — The alien Carolina Grey 
Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) does not occur in the area, 
but I have kept observations in woods in Leicestershire and 
Northamptonshire where red and grey species occur, and I 
cannot hold the view that the grey is responsible for driving 
out the red. There is often fighting between both species, 
but in the Brampton Ash Woods, Northamptonshire, and 
1933 March i 
