Do Adult Squirrels Castrate Each Other?

Abstract

Chicago, Jan. 25, 1897. To the Editor: —I have read with much interest Dr. Edmund Andrews' article on The Oriental Eunuchs, in theJournal, Jan. 22, 1898, wherein speaking of the castration of animals and says anent squirrels: Naturalists state that the black or gray male squirrels in fighting seek to castrate each other with their teeth, so that many of those taken by hunters are thus mutilated. As they do it only in adult life it does not materially change their general development. Commenting upon this, later, in a letter to the Journal dated Jan. 25, 1898, he quotes the observations of Dr. A. S. Allen. Being somewhat of squirrel-hunter myself I wish to confirm the report of Dr. Allen. I should say that fully one-half the male squirrels I have noticed were castrated. This is always done in early life, not merely in the nest as described by