SI11,—Can any of your readers, lovers of wild Nature, tell
us if in other parts of England there has been anything like the almost complete extermination of squirrels which. I find to have taken place in this district since last summer? In a wood where last year I used to feed them, and where they were abundant so that I never failed to see in passing from one to three or font., and where they invariably pillaged the little stores of nuts I placed for them, almost as soon as my back was turned, this year I only saw a single old squirrel, easily identifiable, at intervals of two or three days. The deposits of nuts, in some cases, have not been touched from the beginning, and only after a fortnight's baiting of the more accessible part of the forest have I seen a second squirrel. Large sections of the forest (pine) are entirely deserted by them. I hear from other parts of Surrey the same story. Here it cannot be due to the super- stitious warfare made on them by the keepers, under the mistaken belief that they destroy the pheasants' eggs, for there is no breeding of birds about here, and the squirrels are not shot off.
I may say en passant that I have visited some large estates near Hampshire on which orders are given to the keepers to shoot the squirrels, and have done my best to examine the grounds on which these cruel orders are based ; but with the opportunities at my disposal and questioning of the keepers, I am convinced that, so far as some estates at least are con- cerned, the pretexts given for the extermination of the pretty creatures are absolutely unfounded. In some cases I found that the ravages asserted are imaginary, and several of the keepers declared that in their opinion the squirrels did no harm whatever. One said that they broke up the pheasants' nest.; and ate the eggs, but as I have kept squirrels and found that they refuse to eat eggs or animal food in any form except that of some insects, I reject the accusation altogether. When we have weasels, stoats, jays, rooks, jackdaws, crows, &c., well-known feeders on eggs, to account for the destruction, it seems to me the wolf's accusation to accuse the squirrel of a ravage which even the accusing keepers could not give any actual evidence of. I have been long seeking for, and have not yet found, any veritable testimony to the accusation made against the squirrels, and I have found absolute disproof of some. The superstitions held by many keepers and imparted to their employers are in many cases utterly absurd, and the treatment they give rise to is worthy of rank as amongst the worst cases of cruelty to animals, for mothers are shot and litters of little ones left to die of starvation, as in one case stated to me by a keeper.— I am, Sir, &c., Milford, Surrey, August 21st. W. J. STILLMAN.
[We can assure Mr. Stillman that, on the North Downs at any rate, the squirrels are as plentiful as ever.—En. Spectator.]
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