piercing selection of whistles and small
talk, to say nothing of two small bipeds of five and seven, who cap
all the rest for noise, till I sometimes wish I had the aural
afflictions of the old king. I can, however, quite imagine the
irritation the sharp chirrup-chirrup of this little squirrel would
cause to an invalid, for there is something particularly
ear-piercing about it; but their prettiness and familiarity make up
in great measure for their noisiness. They are certainly a nuisance
in a garden, and I rather doubt whether they are of any use, as
McMaster says, "in destroying many insects, especially white ants,
beetles, both in their perfect and larval state," &c. He adds: "They
are said to destroy the eggs of small birds, but I have never observed
this myself." I should also doubt this, were it not that the European
squirrel is accused of the same thing. General McMaster, I think,
got his idea from a quaint old book, which he quotes at times, Dr.
John Fryer's 'Voyage to East India and Bombain,' who, writing on the
nests of the weaver bird (_Ploceus baya_), says: "It ties it by so
slender a Thread to the Bough of the Tree, that the Squirrel dare
not venture his body, though his Mouth water at the eggs and Prey
within." McMaster himself writes: "This familiar little pest is
accused, but I believe unjustly, of robbing nests; were he guilty
of this, it would in the breeding season cause much excitement among
the small birds, in whose society he lives on terms of almost perfect
friendship." There is much truth in this. Wood and others, however,
state that the European squirrel has been detected in the act of
carrying off a small bird out of a nest, and that it will devour eggs,
insects, &c.

Jerdon relates the Indian legend that, when Hanuman was crossing the
Ganges, it was bridged over by all the animals; one small gap remained,
which was filled by this squirrel, and as Hanuman passed over
he put his hand on the squirrel's back, on which the marks of his
five fingers have since remained. It is not unlike the chipmunk of
America (_Tamias striatus_), but these true ground squirrels have
cheeks pouches and live in burrows. Our so-called palm squirrel
(though it does not affect palms any more than other trees) builds
a ragged sort of nest of any fibrous matter, without much attempt
at concealment; and I have known it carry off bits of lace and strips
of muslin and skeins of wool from a lady's work-box for its
house-bui