cxviii PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
Pers., which abounds in woodlands. It comes early, and is said to be 
edible; at least the squirrels find it so. They are in the habit of 
breaking off a pretty large piece from this or one of the other fungi 
eaten by them, and then betaking themselves to the branch of a tree 
to nibble it there at their leisure. I have seen them with a piece of 
a bright-coloured white-spotted one which looked suspiciously like 
Ammanita muscarius , Linn., a very poisonous species, and they also 
feed on some bright-coloured species of Russula , a genus of which 
most of the species are poisonous. Boletus edulis , Bull., is a favourite 
with them, and there are also other Boleti eaten by them. Another 
fungus which is used by them as food is Hygrophorus hypothejus , Fr., 
which is frequent in pine woods and comes late in the season. 
“After writing the above, I came upon an extract from ‘The 
Gardener’s Chronicle,’ which is as follows :— 
£ “ B,” writing to the “Gardeners’ Chronicle” on a recent lecture by Mr. 
Tom Speedy, the well-known Scots naturalist, on the squirrel, says :—For the 
pretty, nimble little creature the lecturer had nothing good to say. It is stupid, 
and when it buries nuts does not always remember the locality of its hoard. It is 
dirty in person, and provides food, with a warm lodging, for a vast parasitic 
population. But these are merely personal characteristics, of interest to itself 
alone. When it caters for its own food, the outlook includes other interests of 
great importance. Its food consists usually of fruit, nuts, acorns, haws, fungi, the 
cones of pine, the young shoots and bark of conifers and other trees, toadstools, 
and birds’ eggs. The damage effected by the squirrel on pine woods in the north 
of Scotland is so great that on some estates, in order to get rid of the “ plague,” 
as much as one shilling is paid for every squirrel’s tail. As many as iooo to 1200 
are killed annually on a single estate, yet their numbers are never lessened, and 
damage to the plantation is unabated. Exactly the same state of matters exists on 
south country estates, but, the woods being of less extent, less trouble is required 
to destroy them. The writer is aware of many young plantations, not only larch, 
but pure Scots fir, which have been completely ruined by visitations which lasted 
only a few days. Squirrels are extremely fond of sycamores and true planes, and 
peel great strips of bark off young trees up to 20 feet in height, while the young 
buds in early spring provide a favourite dish. 
‘ During the past year, especially in summer and autumn, squirrels have been 
the cause of great loss in gardens. One gardener assured me they carried off a 
fine crop of apricots in the course of a few days, almost before they were noticed. 
These trees are protected in spring with glass copings and movable blinds, and it 
may be said that every effort is made to secure good crops to be eaten by— 
squirrels ! I have heard of several instances, too, where pears, quite hard and 
only half-grown, had been carried off; of peaches on walls denuded of the fruit 
before it was stoned, and many other instances of crops utterly ruined. It becomes 
a much more serious affair when it happens that squirrels are preserved, and the 
gardener is advised not to interfere with them. I have heard of a canny Scot 
who, placed under these very aggravating conditions, possessed himself of a birch- 
broom, with a handle longer than usual, and with that instrument “swept ” his 
trees at the moment one of his foes happened to be intent on getting supplies ! 
Squirrels are easily caught by means of ordinary rat-traps placed on the top of 
walls, along which they may travel to reach the tree they visit. It is seldom 
indeed that a squirrel fails to go straight into a trap, and if it does swerve aside, 
the removal of the trap to another part of the wall is sufficient to cause it to forget 
its caution. I have known wire-netting, fixed at an angle of 45 degrees on the 
top of a wall, and stretching over the fruit tree, prove an effective barrier, but 
in a big stretch of wall it becomes rather expensive. ’ 
“ I suppose that the statements made in the foregoing are correct, 
but the peeled sycamores are rather tall, and the gardener with the 
broom !—well, the squirrels must have been canny. I believe they 
