i88 3 .] 
and A Hies Reconsidered. 
653 
consult modern gardeners whose lot has been cast in well- 
wooded districts, or if, better still, we contrive to make 
observations in person in such a neighbourhood, we shall 
find cause to regard this elegant little animal as a tree-rat, 
meriting' little toleration at our hands. He now varies his 
traditional diet with wall-fruit, and occasionally with pears 
and apples, carefully selecting the finest specimens. His 
depredations of this kind are not mere matter of conjecture ; 
again and again, in the stillness of an early summer 
morning, he has been watched in the very aCt of gnawing 
peaches. The marks of his teeth in pears, &c., are also 
quite distinct from the peckings of birds. 
But there is another charge against the squirrel : in 
shrubberies undisturbed by human depredators we may one 
day observe a bird sitting peacefully upon her eggs ; the 
next day we find the nest all pulled to pieces, the eggs gone, 
and the parent-birds flown to seek some safer spot. This 
mischief is also due to the squirrel. Accordingly, if one of 
these buff-coloured rodents makes his appearance in a grove 
during nesting time, the alarm and dismay of the birds is al- 
most as striking as if a hawk were seen hovering overhead or 
a weasel were running up the tree. Egg-eating appears to be 
distinctly one of the squirrel’s modern accomplishments. 
Whether he confines his attacks to the nests of tree- 
haunting species, or occasionally indulges in a raid upon the 
eggs of the partridge and the pheasant, we cannot say with 
certainty. Still, from certain suspicious faCts, we should 
commend him to the jealous scrutiny of the gamekeeper. 
As far as the smaller birds are concerned, however, not 
merely the eggs but the callow young are exposed to the 
attacks of Bunny. Hence, for our part, we feel no hesitation 
in signing his general death-warrant. 
But to find a means for carrying out the sentence is diffi- 
cult. It is rarely possible to get a fair shot at him if he 
knows that you are in pursuit, as he dexterously contrives 
to keep the stem of a tree or a thick branch between himself 
and the source of danger. Sometimes in the twilight of a 
summer evening a family party of squirrels will come down 
to have a dance on the lawn, and may then be struck down 
if a loaded gun is at hand. In his early morning raids in 
the garden, too, he sometimes may be found within range 
in the open. Dogs and cats pursue him, but they are 
almost equally inefficient. We think, indeed, that a cat has 
more chance of catching a bird than a squirrel. 
As for his wild enemies, the weasel and the polecat — 
which occasionally surprise him in his nest by night or in 
