fitfully for some weeks, but there is nothing to show that their hibernation is more
complete than that of the voles and mice, which take snatches of slumber whenever
the temperature falls low. I have never seen one in a torpid state.
There is no doubt that our Squirrels are greatly affected by extreme cold or
exposure, and that large numbers die in severe winters. This would not be the
case were the animals so complete and early in their hibernation as dormice or
bears. In early winters in Scotland, Squirrels suffer severely and die in numbers
in exposed districts, and I once came upon one in a dazed condition sitting
hopelessly under a stone in the. open deer forest of Lechmeln in Ross-shire. It
seemed starved with the cold and I took it back to the shelter of the Loch
Broom Woods, as it seemed to have revived a bit in the warmth of my pocket.
I have twice seen Squirrels right out on the open moors in Perthshire in the late
autumn and think that they must perform their short journeys from forest to
forest at this season and often become confused and lost on the way.1
Mr. Knox relates2 * 4 an amusing instance of a Highlander, who had never seen
a Squirrel before, who met one out on an open moor near Speyside. The animal
at once mistook the man for a tree and mounted rapidly to the top of his head, to
the great fear of the native, who believed it to be ‘ a thing wi’ horns.’
Squirrels are fond of running along high roads and walls8 in their passage
from one wood to another, and they are capital swimmers.
The Squirrel when she must goe seeke her food
B y making passage through the angry flood
(And feares to be devoured by the streame),
Thus helpes her weakness b y a stratagem.
On blocks, or chips, which on the waves doe flote,
She nimbly le ap s : and making them her boate
(B y helpe o f winds, o f current, and of tide)
Is wafted over to the other side.
Thus, that which for the body proves unfit,
Must often be acquired by the wit*
1 Mr. Harvie-Brown gives similar instances of this, and thinks that the partial destruction of the original breed of Scotch
Squirrels was due to severe winters. See pp. 53 and 63, The Squirrel in Great Britain. I do not think that the indigenous
Squirrels of Upper Strathspey could ever have become extinct, as it would not have been possible for Squirrels to cross the
watershed of the Grampians from Struan.
2 Autumns on the Spey, p. 52.
8 Squirrels sometimes climb and run along houses, and an instance is given in the Zoologist (1889, p. 226) of a pair
making their nest and rearing their young in the church tower of Tostock in Suffolk.
4 See also Olaus Magnus, Gesner, and Topsell for this legend. Topsell says (History of Four-footed Beasts, 1658):
‘ The admirable wit of this beast appeareth in her swimming or passing over the waters, for when hunger or some convenient
I have twice seen Squirrels enter the Tay, and swim to: the other side, and
riverside fishermen sometimes see them crossing the streams.1 They swim with an
unusual amount of flurry, as if fearful of the consequences, and on first entering
the water leap out M; it several times, as if trying to spring across the element.
In the water they are very high in front and deep behind, the hind legs and tail
being fully submerged. I have experimented with them and found that they can
go several hundred yards without fatigue, but seem confused on landing. The old
story of Squirrels passing the waters on a piece 6f bark with the bushy tail
elevated as a sail may be a legend, but they do sail on board a wooden ship
sometimes. I was fishing one day at Stobhall and a dog came down the river
with a Squirrel on board. The animal seemed in a desperate fright all the time,
and was not sitting up complacently allowing the winds to assist its journey.
When the log approached our boat the little passenger plunged into the river, and
despite a heavy stream made the further shore in safety. Squirrels will always
cross a river by a bridge if they can find one.
Squirrels pair as a rule very early in the year, and generally construct fresh
nests in which to place their young. About the beginning of April I can usually
make sure of finding half a dozen nests in St. Leonard’s Forest within half a mile
of my home, but one or two are always quite complete by the middle of March.
I have found young Squirrels as early as the beginning o f March, and remember
evamining a nest in the West Woodsy near Marlborough, in which were three
newly born young at the end of February. Bell (p. 278) says: ‘ The female brings
forth three to four young ones in the month of June.’ This seems to me far
too late a date for the general breeding season, and I should say that thé usual
time when the female brings forth is from March 10 to April 20. A correspondent
in the ‘ Fie ld ’ “ deposes to finding young Squirrels ‘ nearly as large as a rat in
the second week in February, which shows that the species sometimes breeds in
January, and this is indeed striking in an animal which Bell has described as
remaining the greater part of the winter in a state of ‘ almost complete torpidity.
There is often a second litter in August.
prey of meat constraineth her to pass. _o_ve__r _a_ n___r> she seeketh out some wide or small bark of a tree, which she setteth upon
the water, and then goeth into itf and holding up her tail like a sail letteth the wind drive her to the other side.’
1 I am surprised to see that Mr. Harvie-Brown can cite only one instance of a Squirrel taking to the water naturally, as
I am sure it is not of rare occurrence. In a letter to me (December 1904) he says he has seen one swim the Forth.
* March 6, 1886. . . . ,
■ E. W. Blagg has referred to this point in a note in t h e & W .8 9 ., and says: 'The positionof the newly
bum young when their mother hibernates must he a very unenviable one I Perhaps somebody will tell us that the