66 
NATURE NOTES 
temporary, L'Ami des Betes appears from the following paragraph 
to have followed the fashion in admitting fiction to its pages. It 
relates that : — 
A man, followed by his dog, was going over a level crossing when an 
express train came down on him and cut him to pieces. Distraught with grief, 
the dog, having waited till his master’s body was carried home, then disappeared. 
The next day a man working on the line saw the dog come to the same level 
crossing, and at the same time as his master had been killed yesterday, and lie 
down on the rail. Before the labourer could interfere, the express was down on 
the faithful creature, but the cow-catcher caught him, and hurled him, only 
slightly injured, into a ditch. With a dismal howl the dog ran to a neighbouring 
stream, threw himself in, and was drowned. 
Correction. — The illustration in Mr. Wesley Page’s article 
on Parrakeets in last month’s number was inadvertently printed 
upside down, and should have been described as a “ Log Nest.” 
SQUIRRELS. 
HERE appears to be a custom for young men and boys 
to hunt squirrels each year in the New Forest, when 
they generally succeed in bringing down on their 
heads indignant and angry remonstrance for so doing. 
No doubt the bo}^s enjoy the sport, or they would not indulge 
in it. If, however, they were to attempt to justify it by saying 
they had killed some creatures not altogether angelic in their 
habits, and that their numbers required thinning, would they be 
quite wrong ? 
To the squirrel England is well-nigh Utopian. The majority 
of his natural enemies are non-existent : he does much as he 
likes, and flourishes amazingly. His pretty, engaging ways 
make him a favourite : his defenders and admirers are many. 
But he is a scamp in spite of it all. His relatives have a bad 
name. He is too nearly allied to that detestable animal, the 
brown rat, to escape suspicion ; and belongs to a race that with 
hardly an exception is omnivorous and cannibalistic. When, 
then, we enquire into his character our suspicions are confirmed. 
The damage committed by squirrels in plantations is well 
known. 
In Ross-shire (a friend writes to say) miles of firs have been destroyed by 
their eating the points off the tops and branches. It was only last autumn that 
I heard a man up there talking about it, and he said the trees would never come 
to any good. 
Squirrels are often caught in traps baited with fresh meat for 
cats or weasels, and those who have kept them in confinement 
may have discovered that a chicken bone off a plate does not 
come amiss to them. 
That they are egg stealers and persecutors of many of our 
little birds there is no doubt. In a garden that I know of a 
squirrel appeared one spring, and almost all the eggs of the 
small birds about the place were sucked. 
