THE AMERICAN GREY SQUIRREL IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 203
in habits and habitat, and "scare" articles in the newspaper
press and popular magazines exaggerate the danger. If a
comparison has to be made with another alien species it is much
more reasonable to make it with the fallow-deer, a park and
woodland animal, an attractive and valuable addition to our
fauna, and the probability seems to be that the future may find
these two species continuing to inhabit similar places in our
country in limited numbers. I make no plea on utilitarian
grounds but, like the rabbit, squirrels make excellent eating and
it was entertaining to find that the author (Mr. L. C. R. Cameron)
of one of the best of our war-time food-books, that on the Wild 
Foods of Great Britain (1917), had found this out and recom-
mended the addition of the grey squirrel to our national diet.
Mr. M. C. Duchesne's experience, however, is that the excellent
flavour of the grey squirrel in its native home is lost in British
killed animals, which are frequently infested with fleas and are
offensive otherwise.
The other side of the picture is that the grey squirrel is exceed-
ingly destructive and mischievous, although probably not more
so than our native squirrel. A long list of enormities (to us)
lies against them both, but these need not be recapitulated here.
In closing I should refer to another continually repeated
charge against the grey squirrel, namely, that it is antagonistic
to the native animal and displaces or destroys it. There seems
to be something in this, but opinions differ much and conclusive
evidence is entirely wanting. Thus, Sir David Prain says of
the Kew Gardens introduction, "Their coming led somehow
"or other to the disappearance of the red squirrels. But I
"cannot say that we have much to complain of in the way of
"mischief done in other respects." The red squirrel has been
a decaying and dwindling species throughout England for many
years, and in reports recently received by me from many places
all over the country, only one is named in which it is said to be
maintaining its numbers at present. It has gone under or is
disappearing in many places where a grey squirrel has never
been seen or heard of. The hands of gamekeepers, foresters
and others, who cannot spare a small share of the produce of their
lands, are always against the squirrels. Where the red squirrel
does flourish, as in the pine-woods and plantations of Northern
Scotland, it is systematically killed off, and the Highland