Slaying for the Side
I do not know to what extent local patriotism would respond to the incentive, but I should have thought it would be worth the Forestry Commission's while to put their cam- paign against the grey squirrel on a County Championship basis. An appendix to their latest progress report (which shows that over a quarter of a minion of these pests were killed in the year ending September, 1953) gives an interesting guide to inter-county form. Since the shilling-a-tail drive started in March of this year East Sussex (18,664) have estab- lished a small lead over Hampshire (18,181), which is all the more creditable since their total for the whole of 1952 was only 6,206, against Hampshire's 18,000. Kent and West Sussex are both steadily improving (or if you prefer it deteriorating) counties with five figure bags. Berkshire, Wiltshire, Hertford- shire, Surrey and Oxfordshire all look likely challengers; and Cornwall, with a 1953 total of 14, has just qualified for the Minor Counties, among whom Cambridgeshire is putting up a plucky performance in a small way. There have, after all, in our rough island story been many more ridiculous spectacles than that of a County Pests Officer receiving a hideous trophy from the hands of a Beauty Queen dressed entirely in the pelts of Sciurus carolinensis.
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