198 MAMMALIA. 



would enable them to capture the most wary with ease. Moreover 

 the eagerness and avidity with which they seize and feast upon a 

 dead bird placed within reach would indicate that they were not 

 strangers to such a repast. * In confinement they will eat bird's 

 eggs, not discarding the shells. 



A more gentle, docile, and graceful animal lhan the Flying Squirrel 

 does not exist, and though without anything striking in the way of 

 color or markings, it is nevertheless one of the most beautiful of our 

 mammals. The dense silky fur of an ashen-brown above and creamy 

 white beneath, rivalling that of the chinchilla in glossy softness, and 

 the large, prominent, and expressive eyes, together with its pretty 

 ways, render it an attractive and justly esteemed pet. 



Prof. F. H. King mentions the interesting circumstance that 

 when an assortment of nuts was placed within reach of a Flying 

 Squirrel which he had in confinement, it carried off all the acorns 

 and hazel-nuts, but did not touch any of the others. These two 

 kinds of nuts were the only ones that grew in the immediate 

 neighborhood of the place where this squirrel was captured, but it 

 was taken so young that it could never have seen any nuts prior 

 to its confinement. Hence the case seems clearly one of inherited 

 habit. f 



Whether, in the region under consideration, this variety of the 

 Flying Squirrel hibernates, I am unable to state with positiveness, 

 though strongly of opinion that it does. It certainly remains in 

 its nest durino; the severer weather of our winters. 



o 



Next to the bats, it is the most strictly nocturnal of our mammals, 

 very rarely being seen abroad till after nightfall. He who quietly 

 wanders through our groves and forests during the wa'rm, still 



* Prof. F. H. King, in his admirable and comprehensive treatise upon the Economic Relations 

 of Wisconsin Birds, says : ;< In the spring of 1879, I placed the young of the Chipping Sparrow in 

 the cage with a young pet flying squirrel (Scimvf tents volucelld). The bird was seized with energy 

 and killed but not eaten." (Geology of Wisconsin, Vol. I, 1883, p. 444.) The reason the bird was 

 not eaten is hard to explain unless the squirrel was surfeited with food. 



f Mr. E. P. Bicknell suggests that the squirrel may have selected the acorns and hazel-nuts 

 because they were thinner-shelled than the others. 



