The street squirrel-sellers are generally the same men as are engaged
in the open-air traffic in cage-birds. There are, however, about six
men who devote themselves more particularly to squirrel-selling, while
as many more sometimes “take a turn at it.” The squirrel is usually
carried in the vendor’s arms, or is held against the front of his coat,
so that the animal’s long bushy tail is seen to advantage. There is
usually a red leather collar round its neck, to which is attached some
slender string, but so contrived that the squirrel shall not appear
to be a prisoner, nor in general--although perhaps the hawker became
possessed of his squirrel only that morning--does the animal show any
symptoms of fear.
The chief places in which squirrels are offered for sale, are
Regent-street and the Royal Exchange, but they are offered also in
all the principal thoroughfares--especially at the West End. The
purchasers are gentlefolk, tradespeople, and a few of the working
classes who are fond of animals. The wealthier persons usually buy the
squirrels for their children, and, even after the free life of the
woods, the animal seems happy enough in the revolving cage, in which it
“thinks it climbs.”
The prices charged are from 2_s._ to 5_s._, “or more if it can be got,”
from a third to a half being profit. The sellers will oft enough state,
if questioned, that they caught the squirrels in Epping Forest, or Caen
Wood, or any place sufficiently near London, but such is hardly ever
the case, for the squirrels are bought by them of the dealers in live
animals. Countrymen will sometimes catch a few squirrels and bring them
to London, and nine times out of ten they sell them to the shopkeepers.
To sell three squirrels a day in the street is accounted good work.
I am assured by the best-informed parties that for five months of the
year there are 20 men selling squirrels in the streets, at from 20 to
50 per cent. profit, and that they average a weekly sale of six each.
The average price is from 2_s._ to 2_s._ 6_d._, although not very long
ago one man sold a “wonderfully fine squirrel” in the street for three
half-crowns, but they are sometimes parted with for 1_s._ 6_d._ or
less, rather than be kept over-night. Thus 2400 squirrels are vended
yearly in the streets, at a cost to the public of 240_l._