CLASS MAMMALIA.
57
remember, by some fishermen in their nets. The specimen,
which was aged and blind, was dissected by Professor Clark,
and presented to the Cambridge Anatomical Museum.
A great source of error in consulting records of Seal cap-
tures is the uncertainty about the species, in consequence of
the finds being rarely examined by competent naturalists.
With more observers, too, no doubt some of the other species
of Seals would have been added to this list.
Order RODENTIA.
Family SCIURIDAE.
Genus SCIURUS, Linn.
Sciurus vulgaris, Linn. Common Squirrel.
This elegant and active little animal is so well known that
very little need be said about it. It occurs in all parts of the
county where suitable spots (that is woods) are to be found.
It is almost omnivorous. Mr. E. A. Fitch gives {Essex
Nat., vol. ii., p. 71) some proofs that it occasionally kills small
birds for food. Birds' eggs and insects are also sometimes
eaten, but vegetables form its main support. In the early
spring, when the beech-trees are coming into leaf, I have
noticed as many as six squirrels busily feeding on the young
shoots of trees. They will bite off and throw down the
leaves, consuming only the stalk—that is, the young
branch. In the autumn, I have seen Squirrels strip off the
loose bark from dead branches, and carefully scrape out
with their teeth the fungus frequently found under the bark.
When this ingenious process is going on, the position adopted
by the Squirrel is not the usual one for feeding; for instead of
sitting up on its haunches, the creature almost invariably hangs
head downwards.
Although said to hybernate, I question if the Squirrel, as