SQUIRRELS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF Tsa "SPECTATOR."] Sin, I could show your correspondent "E. P." (Spectator, March 7th) several photographs and sketches of a squirrel seated on the window-sill of our dining-room, in front of a half-cocoanut. He would sit upright, pressing the nut down with his hind-legs and nibbling away inside it, helping himself in the most approved fashion, with his sharp front-claws. (Lady Grove would be pleased to hear that he only used his claw and not, also, a spoon !—not having one, I suppose.) He would skip sharply round the corner of the mullion to a glass of water, take a sip, and return to his feast. There were several others, equally bold,—one very dark, with a splendid tail, another lighter, with a mangy tail—he always crept up apologetically—another very old one, with a ragged ear, hair turning grey and dusty, and no tail to speak of. They would jump through the open window on to the table, if the room was quiet; one with a crippled paw was very amusing to watch. A favourite game of theirs was to knock down the nut from the sill on to the broad flagged terrace, pat it along with their feet and noses, through the rose-bushes, down the slope, and roll and push it across the wide lawn to a large laurustinus-bush, close to their favourite cedar-tree. We used to find the empty husks there, very soon. At last a Tom-cat, uneducated, ill-conditioned, upon whom the servants culpably wasted their affections, with the help of our fish-bones and cold partridges, took to prowling along the terrace, stroking the roses with his amiable whiskers, and pretending he came to admire the grandchildren. One morning our most magnificent cock-robin lay a tousled red heap on the stones. After that there was more. I cannot write it. I have a squirrel's bushy tail, tied up with red ribbon, in my curio table, before me now. Needless to say, the scene was laid in "beautiful Kent," and the old house was surrounded with groves of fine old Spanish chestnuts and walnut-trees, a very paradise for good squirrels.—I am, Sir, &c., M. H. P.S.—The rabbits used to dig up all the large iris-roots and eat the delicate white stems.
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