Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/267



a civilized and thickly populated country, the first of the wild native fauna to fall before the superior advance of man are the larger mammals; and, although in many cases man has been the loser by the wantonness of his slaughter, yet as a rule, such destruction having been for the general benefit of the human race, one has perforce to lay aside one's sentimental desires and accept the inevitable. Among the smaller mammals, however, no such tale of slaughter exists, and Rats and Mice maintain their existence under the very roofs of man, who is practically powerless to diminish their numbers. That the abundance of these latter is in part due to the scarcity of the larger mammals is to a great extent true; but as my object is not to discuss the protection or otherwise of mammals, let us turn to the one group which does comparatively little harm, and to the species which, although of diurnal and conspicuous habits, still remains in numbers to enliven our woods and forests—the Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris).

The Squirrel, as most people know, is a rodent of arboreal habits; in shape and size it much resembles a Rat, but its feet are longer and more plastic, enabling it to grasp with greater ease the trees on which it lives. The front feet have only four Zool. 4th ser. vol. V., July, 1901.