Fifty years ago
SIGNS THAT our native red squirrel is multiplying (as indicated in last week's notes) should be correlated with its past history. Just fifty years ago the species suffered from an infec- tious malady that wiped it out in a great many districts, though a few counties in the West Country escaped. It happened that just about the same date two American visitors, and later the Duke of Bedford and others, intro- duced the grey American squirrel, with disastrous effects. The new immigrant did — and does — a deal of harm and, though there is small evidence that it attacks the smaller red squirrel, it cer- tainly queered the native's pitch. Allu- sions to this and a precise account of the many thousand grey squirrels that have been shot appear in Mr Fitter's wholly admirable account of the natu- ral history of the London area in "the New Naturalist" series.
The Spectator 16 November 1945
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