THE AMERICAN GREY SQUIRREL IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 191
ears have a conspicuous white patch behind, and the hairs of
the long bushy tail are tipped with white. Where identification
of the grey squirrel in this country is the result of observations
out-of-doors only, there seems to be a possibility of confusion
with the European species, S. vulgaris (from which I understand
the grey squirrel fur of commerce comes), or perhaps even with
the British squirrel in its greyish winter dress.
Introduction and Distribution in the British Isles.
How came this attractive American stranger to find a footing
and make a home in our midst?
There can be no doubt that it was by the voluntary action
and agency of man, prompted probably by the desire to add
a pleasing element to the wild life of our parks and woodlands.
The picturesque and romantic story of squirrels navigating
themselves across stretches of water on pieces of wood, with
their big bushy tails spread out to a favouring breeze, is very
pretty but does not fit in for the North Atlantic. In New
York one of the attractions of the Central Park is the flourishing
colony of grey squirrels and they are common in the city parks
in many parts of the United States.3 This may have led to the
experiment of .trying them in similar surroundings in England.
The earliest date I know of their appearance is 1890, when
the late Mr. G. S. Page, of New York, brought some grey squirrels
to our country and turned out five of them in Bushy Park,
Middlesex.4 The experiment was unsuccessful, although it
is possible that some of the grey squirrels now occurring there-
abouts, both on the Middlesex and Surrey sides of the Thames,
may be descended from the first five. Of these localities more
will be said later on.
The chief centre of introduction and dispersal in England
has been Woburn, Bedfordshire, where, as is well-known, the
Duke of Bedford has for a lengthy period maintained in the
open a large and interesting collection of various species of foreign
animals, many of them living in partial or almost entire freedom.
The exact date of the introduction of the grey squirrel at Woburn
is unknown, but it is some thirty years ago and may be con-
temporaneous with the Bushy Park episode mentioned above.
3. Mr. E. W. Nelson, in lit., 24th March, 1917, to Mr. Oldfield Thomas, The Field, 28th April,
1917, p. 625.
4. The Field, 16th January, 1909, p. 117.