Omnivorous Virtues
Now perhaps the chief cause of the invincibility of the grey squirrel is its readiness to eat any sort of food. In South America (as Buffon recorded long ago) it proved a wholesale destroyer of maize or Indian corn. Since its importation into England it has been seen to eat young birds, young rats, eggs, corn, bulbs, green tips, bark and all sorts of nuts. The red squirrel is much less catholic. It is not exclusively vegetarian. Red robbers have been seen raiding the rooks' nests, not of eggs, but young birds. Like the rest of the tribe, it is in- quisitive and sharp-toothed and will stray from its proper dietary ; but it is essentially a kernel-eater. With what neatness it holds a nut in the front paws and with what precise speed it cuts a hole in the shell, always in the same place, and extracts the nut. Its particular adaptation is obvious, and one may say that it will be unlikely to flourish in any place where some congenial form of nutty food is not easily pro- curable. Incidentally, if young squirrels are found, as in one experience known to me, apart from their parents, they are reluctant to take any food, but can be induced to drink milk if offered in the warm palm of the hand. No pet becomes more fearless or more merry.
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