28 
NATURE NOTES 
were tried without success. The family cat, however, solved 
the difficulty. She had had kittens some days previously and 
was suckling one of them. When the two squirrels were intro- 
duced to her she showed no signs of aversion, and when they 
were placed beside the kitten she freely allowed them access to 
the teats, and they eagerly took advantage of the opportunity. 
Henceforth pussy suckled her interesting family of three. The 
squirrels soon grew very lively, and kept everyone in the house 
lively too. They would climb curtains, explore shelves and 
cupboards and run along clothes ropes, rushing hither and 
thither with quick, eager motions. Their favourite playing 
place was over the persons of the people of the house, finding, 
perhaps, the human figure the nearest approach to the natural 
playing place of young squirrels on the trunk of their native 
tree. They were absolutely tame, and showed not the slightest 
fear of man, perching on the shoulders or head, or clinging to 
the dress of any person, but especially of those in the house 
with whom they were familiar. The effect of the companionship 
of the squirrels on the kitten was quite noticeable. She became 
as wild and venturesome as they, rushing about in their com- 
pany, and only leaving them when they performed some feat of 
climbing beyond her ability. The mother pussy would watch 
their antics with an expression of wistful wonder. After a time 
the squirrels would eat freely of hazel-nuts, and it was their 
constant practice to hide these, often in very amusing places ; 
in the pockets, underneath the collar of a jacket, and even 
among the coils of a lady’s hair were favourite spots. Although 
they had at times the opportunity to escape to the garden and 
thence to the woods, they did not choose to leave their adopted 
home. By and by they developed such a taste for tearing 
paper that nothing was safe from their persistent claws and 
teeth, and so a home had to be found for them elsewhere. A 
gardener on a neighbouring estate built a roomy house for them, 
fitted with branches and everything as like their natural sur- 
roundings as could be devised, and there the s(juirrels still live, 
having passed their first winter. Kitty has evidently not for- 
gotten her early associates, and she is still the wildest cat of the 
neighbourhood. M. 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
.4 Gardener’s Vear. By II. Rider Ilajjgard. Longmans. Price 12 s. 6d. net. 
There are no more wholesome fashions among our wealthier classes to-day 
than the cults of gardens and of birds. Perhaps the taste for orchids and other 
bizarre exotics is a sign that their love of horticulture is not the protest against 
the general artificiality of life which it might be supposed to be ; but any contact 
with Nature, even in the aviary or the hot-hou.se, is bound to have some humanis- 
ing influence, to detach a man or woman from complete engrossment in self. 
Since we, in these pages, were among the first to welcome “ Elizabeth and Her 
German Garden,” we have had a host of gardening books, many of which have 
but exhibited an unrea.soning love of garden flowers, their colours, their form 
