Since the above was written a much valued correspondent sends
me a reference indicating that this crime in the grey squirrel, if new to England, is found in old records. He quotes Buffon's Natural History, published in 1749. In Vol. 5, the dossier of the grey squirrel reads to this effect : " In North America such ravages to the maize crops were caused by it as to cause incredible losses to the planters. In Pennsylvania, alone, 3d. per head was offered for every squirrel destroyed, and the amount paid in one year was £8,000. (This pans out at over 600,000 head.) It is strange that those who introduced the squirrel here—and they were men learned in the literature of animals—were not aware of its reputation. As my corres- pondent writes : " If the character of the grey squirrel was known in all its turpitude, so long ago as, say, 1740, why did not its introducers know a little about it quite recently ? " A similar comment might well be made about the little owl.
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