Skerryvore

“ He was still engaged in this operation when a great creeper with scarlet flowers, hanging about twenty feet above the head of the rattle-snake, began to move in a curious way, and out of the wreaths of leaves and blossoms came a big, black body, as large as a man's arm—a boa-constrictor. It glided down the creeper towards the trunk of the magnolia, taking the greatest care to do nothing which could rouse the attention of the rattle-snake, who, indeed, was wholly occupied in making ready the squirrel to swallow. ”

“ And, sick at heart, I dropped out of sight and made the best of my way back to the coppice.
Such was the end of the strongest and bravest squirrel whom I ever knew. You must not imagine for one moment that such a crime as he was guilty of is a common one among squirrels. It is, indeed, very rare for one of our family to take to a carnivorous diet, but when he does fall into such a habit he never abandons it. They say that there is a kind of parrot in New Zealand, called the kea, which in old days, before sheep were imported into the islands, lived entirely upon seeds and insects. ”

“ By the end of the dry season the water trails of the Ceriso are worn to a white ribbon in the leaning grass, spread out faint and fanwise toward the homes of gopher and ground rat and squirrel. But however faint to man-sight, they are sufficiently plain to the furred and feathered folk who travel them. Getting down to the eye level of rat and squirrel kind, one perceives what might easily be wide and winding roads to us if they occurred in thick plantations of trees three times the height of a man. It needs but a slender thread of barrenness to make a mouse trail in the forest of the sod. ”

“ I saw several red squirrels running up and down a large pine-tree, which had been broken by the wind at the top; and there, no doubt, they had laid up stores. These squirrels did not follow each other in a straight line, but ran round and round in a spiral direction, so that they never hindered each other, nor came in each other's way: two were always going up, while the other two were going down. They seem to work in families; for the young ones, though old enough to get their own living, usually inhabit the same nest, and help to store up the grain for winter use. ”

“ How far superior is the method of the Cerceris, so rapid, so cheap, so expeditious! What lessons we should have to learn from such transcendental chemistry when an imperceptible drop of liquid poison renders in an instant the prey incorruptible! What am I saying?—incorruptible?—that is far from being all; the game is put into a condition which prevents desiccation, leaves their suppleness to the limbs, and maintains all the organs in pristine freshness, both the internal and external. In short, the Cerceris puts the insect into a state differing only from life by a corpse-like immobility. ”

“ Believing that the interest of the scene was now over, I was about raising my rifle to take aim at the snake, when a motion on its part convinced me that it was not asleep, but watching. Watching for what? A squirrel, perhaps, for this is the creature’s favourite prey. I looked up into the tree. It had all the appearance of being what is termed a ‘squirrel-tree’—that is, a tree in which squirrels have their nest. Ha! just as I expected—there was a hole in the trunk, high up; and around its orifice the bark was slightly discoloured, evidently by the paws of the squirrels passing in and out. ”

“ That night the weather became worse than ever. The storm raged through the woods, roaring in the pines and swaying the birches and beeches, while dead branches snapped off with cracks like rifle-fire. Skewbald and his mother were sheltering on the lee side of a giant beech. If it had been day, the trail of dead oyster fungus up its trunk would have told its tale of inner decay. The mare became uneasy, and moved away from the shelter of the vast column. She called to Skewbald, who followed, but feeling the bite of the freezing wind, backed behind the trunk again. ”

“ Curiously enough the old poet William Browne, as also Wither, speaks of a squirrel's nest as a "dray"—still used, by-the-by, in some counties—which in the New Forest is always called a "cage." In this last sense Mr. Lower adds it to the glossary of Sussex provincialisms (Sussex Archæological Collections, vol. xiii., p. 215) . I may further note that at Christmas in the Forest, as in other wooded parts of England, squirrel-feasts are held. Two parties of boys and young men go into the woods armed with "scales" and "snogs" (see chap. xvi. p. 182) . to see who will kill the most squirrels. ”

“ There are always enemies alert for such a chance. Or if he swings to drink at the familiar spring and sees not what mother sees, a Blacksnake lurking on a log, or heeds not her sharp "Keep back," he goes, and maybe takes a single sip, but it is his last.
If one, misled by their bright color, persists in eating fruit of the deadly nightshade, ignoring mother's warning, "Quare, quare!" he eats, he has willed to eat; and there is a little Squirrel body tumbled from the nest next day, to claim the kindly care of growing plants and drifting leaves that will hide it from the view. ”

“ As unexpectedly as a sudden wind can whirl a spiral of snow into the air, the squirrel's leisurely pace changed to wild flight. Franz ceased pondering whys and wherefores and lost himself in watching.
From the same side of the clearing where the squirrel had first appeared, a fox emerged from the forest. But rather than choosing a leisurely pace, the fox was running so furiously that it seemed little more [20] than a streak of fur. Franz watched with pounding heart as the animal, whose every leap equalled twenty of the short-legged squirrel's frantic lunges, overtook its quarry. ”

“ The same species is often found to differ in its manner of life in different localities. Some species of Xenops and Magarornis, like woodpeckers, climb vertically on tree-trunks in search of insect prey, but also, like tits, explore the smaller twigs and foliage at the extremity of the branches; so that the whole tree, from its root to its topmost foliage, is hunted over by them. The Sclerurus, although an inhabitant of the darkest forest, and provided with sharply-curved claws, never seeks its food on trees, but exclusively on the ground, among the decaying fallen leaves ”

“ Here are several species of Squirrels. The ground Squirrels, or Sciurus striatus, Linn. S. N. are commonly kept in cages, because they are very pretty: but they cannot he entirely tamed. The greater Squirrels, or Sciurus cinereus, Linn. S. N. frequently do a great deal of mischief in the plantations, but particularly destroy the maize. For they climb up the stalks, cut [96] the ears in pieces and eat only the loose and sweet kernel which lies quite in the inside. They sometimes come by hundreds upon a maize-field, and then destroy the whole crop of a countryman in one night. ”

“ The present generation of country squires are not without an intelligent appreciation of what tends so immeasurably to the varied natural attractions of their woodlands, and a continuance of the senseless slaughter by ignorant and irresponsible keepers of Common and Honey Buzzards, Kites, and Hobbies—not to mention the more familiar Kestrels—would in many instances doubtless receive a very summary check could those in authority be made acquainted with the murderous proclivities of their underlings the moment they espy a rare and harmless bird upon their beat. ”

“ The extinct genera are Ischyromys, from the Upper Miocene of Nebraska; Paramys, allied to the marmots, and Sciuravus, near the squirrels, from the Eocene of Wyoming.
Here we have unmistakable evidence that the true squirrels (Sciurus) are an Old World type, which has only recently entered North America; and this is in accordance with the comparative scarcity of this group in South America, a country so well adapted to them, and their great abundance in the Oriental region, which, with the Palæarctic, was probably the country of their origin and early development. ”

“ It would be of the highest importance to bring forward such facts if they exist, as they would tell us whether the suggestions of instinct are absolute and immutable, or if they vary, and within what limits. It is true that in the cell of a Cerceris are buried most varied species of Buprestids or of the Weevil group, which shows that she has a great latitude of choice ”

“ My little readers have, none of them perhaps, ever seen this bird: it is not very common in England, though found in most parts of the globe. This one we see in the picture is feeding its young with an insect, or beetle; but the Shrike is a very voracious and cruel bird. It not only eats insects, reptiles, little mice and such things, but attacks the young unfledged nestlings of smaller birds than itself, and devours them. This is why it is called by the ugly name of Butcher Bird. Fancy the horrid thing devouring the tender, weak, and helpless young of its own species! ”

“ But the Great Cerceris is faithful to her household gods. The overhanging blade of sandstone that sheltered her predecessors is adopted by her in her turn; she digs in the same layer of sand wherein her forbears dug; and, adding her own labours to those which went before, she obtains deep retreats that are not always easy of inspection. The diameter of the galleries is wide enough to admit a man’s thumb; and the insect moves about in them readily, even when laden with the prey which we shall see it capture. ”

“ Sciurus (100-120 sp., including the sub-genera Spermosciurus, Xerus, Macroxus, Rheithrosciurus, and Rhinosciurus) , comprises the true squirrels, and occupies the area of the whole family wherever woods and forests occur. The approximate number of species in each region is as follows: Nearctic 18, Palæarctic 6, Ethiopian 18, Oriental 50, Australian (Celebes) 5, Neotropical 30. Sciuropterus (16-19 sp.) , comprises the flat-tailed flying squirrels, which range from Lapland and Finland to North China and Japan, and southward through India and Ceylon, to Malacca and Java, with a species in Formosa ”

“ If she does not find walking with such a burden easy, it is otherwise with her flight, which is surprisingly powerful, if one considers that the strong little creature is carrying a prey nearly as large as and heavier than herself. I have had the curiosity to weigh the Cerceris and her prey separately, and the first weighed 150 milligrammes, and the second about 250, almost double. ”

“ She hated to be ignored. But still the rat ignored her, though he saw her perfectly well and would have loved to eat her. At last, in her excitement, she caught sight of the cord running over the edge of the scarecrow's hat. Snatching it up in her beak, she gave it an energetic and inquiring tug. She learned something interesting about it at once. It grabbed her by one leg.
"Startled into a panic, as all wild things are at the least suggestion of restraint, she squawked and flapped into the air. The noose tightened rebukingly and pulled her up short. ”

“ It has been my experience that the Great Northern Shrike hunts most successfully when he, so to speak, flies down his prey. If he gets a small bird well started out into the open and with cover at a long distance ahead, the shrike generally manages to overtake and overpower his victim. If the quarry, however, is sought in the underbrush or in the close twined branches of the treetop, it generally succeeds in eluding the butcher. One of the most interesting incidents of all my bird observations was that of the attempted capture by a Great Northern Shrike of a small brown creeper. ”

“ There are about a dozen species, widely distributed over the east. There is a general resemblance to squirrels. The species differ chiefly in the size and in colour and length of the fur. Nearly all have long bushy tails. Their food consists of insects and fruit, which they usually seek for in the trees. When feeding they often sit on their haunches, holding the food, after the manner of squirrels, between their fore paws. The pen-tailed tree-shrew (Ptilocercus lowi) , from Borneo, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, is the second generic representative of the family Tupaiidae. ”

“ Then the mare left outside, hearing the trampling of hoofs, and feeling lonely, gave a loud whinny. Skewbald caught it amid the noise of tumult. He broke from the herd, dashed across the field, through the gravelly ford, then, as he neared the gate, collected himself, cleared it at a bound, and joined his partner.
“My word!” exclaimed the colt-hunter, with a rueful laugh. “Can’t that skewbald jump! One of you open the gate so that the other ponies can get back into the forest again. All our trouble for nothing. Well, we’d better go and have breakfast.” ”

“ They went right past the girl, though she tore off her hat, whirled it above her head, and let off blood-curdling shrieks. “After them, Molly,” called her father, and the thunder of hoofs resounded, while the setting sun gilded the heather, firs, and fern with a deeper glory than before, and enhanced Skewbald, as he emerged with the mare and foal on the hilltop, then disappeared behind clumps of hollies, or, a moment in shade, told dark on the skyline. ”

“ The second is a small Squerrell, not unlike the English Squerrell, which doth much trouble the planters of Corne, so that they are constrained to set divers Trappes, and to carry their Cats into the Corne fields, till their corne be three weekes old. The third kind is a flying Squerrell, which is not very bigge, slender of body, with a great deale of loose skinne which shee spreads square when shee flyes, which the winde gets, and so wafts her Batlike body from place to place; it is a creature more for sight and wonderment, than eyther pleasure or profit. ”