SQUIRRELS.
[To THR EDITOR or THE "SPROTATOIS,..1 SIR,—In your issue of March 7th you insert a letter from a correspondent on " Squirrels and Cocoanuts " which recalls to Me an experience of my own. I gave my gamekeeper strict injunctions never on any occasion to shoot a squirrel. I look upon the squirrel as a species of handmaiden, and in any case he is a happy-go-lucky creature, intending little ill, and if he does-offend at times, his company and capers on the lawn or on the gean-tree or pear-tree make up for his mischiefs. I once was compelled, with some misgiving, to take down a squirrel's abode, as a tree was to be removed to preserve the light of a parlour situated in the Forfarshire highlands, the roof of the room being low, and the tree being the pious abode of the squirrel and his mate. The gross weight of the nest was six pounds, made up of the nest itself proper, an old stocking, a glove, a bit of the Spectator, a reduced -copy of the Church of Scotland hymnal, a leather watch-guard, a large bunch of black face-wool, the remains of a heavy dish-clout, an apron-string, the handle of a whip, a girl's glove, one pound bf mortar from an old quarry, one leaf of an old sermon which had been delivered at a Sunday conventicle in Glenisla, and other odds and ends difficult to assort and easy to escape the memory. I could not restore the neat, because my object was to make a digest of it for the-Spectator if you shall be pleased courteously to insert this letter.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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