We know an old keeper who believes that squirrels eat everything
eatable in a wood, and that nothing does more damage to his interests.
He reviles squirrels bitterly, saying that they steal as many of his
precious eggs as rats; the eggs of small birds too, and, on occasion,
nestlings. There seems no end to his accusations. He declares squirrels
will take strawberries and apricots if they have the chance, and that
they eat mushrooms and dig up truffles. A favourite food is supplied
by the Scotch pine; though in hot weather larch, silver fir, and spruce
are added in liberal quantities to the dietary. While he rejoices in
hazel-nuts, beech-mast, acorns, and spruce-seeds, he is sometimes
tempted by berries, walnuts, and apples. He eats freely off buds and
young shoots, and peels the bark off trees--digging a spiral course
with his teeth near the top of the tree, so that the first strong gale
blows over the tree-top. It is the sweet stuff between bark and tree,
rather than the bark itself, that attracts his fancy. In the spring he
plays havoc with the tender shoots of the horse-chestnut, showering
them on the ground; while he is so fond of acorns that he is accused
even of pulling up young oak plants to devour the remains of the acorns
below. But we doubt that one squirrel in ten inflicts serious injury on
anybody.
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