Flying Squirrel 



serve them well at imitating the fungus growth or the bark of a dead 

 tree. Such protective copying is to be seen all through the woods. 

 On the same trees I noticed small, dull-white, half-moon-shaped 

 patches of fungus, and on closer inspection found that fully two-thirds 

 of them were moths flattened against the under sides of the branches 

 to avoid the drip of the rain. 



Unless disturbed, Flying Squirrels pass the day asleep in their 

 warm nests, generally in some deserted Woodpecker's hole or natural 

 cavity in a decayed tree-trunk, though they are quite ready when 

 opportunity offers to establish themselves in holes about the eaves or 

 in the garret of the farm-house. The cold winter months seem also 

 to be passed in the same way, if, indeed, the little animals are not 

 entirely torpid at this season. 



During the milder parts of the year they come forth about dusk, 

 and, so far as we know, their activity continues throughout the night. 

 From tree to tree they go in pursuit of food or chasing one another 

 about in pure enjoyment of life and motion. Alighting upon a tree- 

 trunk they always go upward, scrambling and jumping until they 

 reach the topmost branches, when they launch forth in their parachute- 

 like descent, their legs stretched out to the utmost, so as to extend the 

 folds of skin on either side, to which they owe their power of sailing. 

 Flight it cannot properly be called, since they can only glide down- 

 ward until just about to come to rest, when by a deflection of the 

 body they are enabled through their momentum to shoot up diag- 

 onally a few inches and grasp the tree-trunk, ready for another climb. 

 They sometimes cover long distances when they start from a consid- 

 erable altitude, and Doctor Bachman states that he has seen them sail 

 from the top of one tree to the base of another fifty yards away. 



The young are reared in the nests and vary in number from two 

 to four. Doctor Merriam has found them in the Adirondacks half- 

 grown by the end of April. 



In their food Flying Squirrels are not very particular. They sub- 

 sist mainly upon nuts, and, from Doctor Merriam's experience, seem 

 to prefer acorns, hazel and beech nuts. Insects, he states, particu- 

 larly beetles, do not go amiss, and they are also known to eat portions 

 of dead birds. Some of these little animals regularly find their way 

 into our cabin in the pine woods of New Jersey, and here they vary 

 their diet to a considerable degree, sharing with the White-footed 

 Mice any scraps of victuals that may be left exposed. 



As pets Flying Squirrels are exceedingly gentle and affectionate. 



177 



