SCIUROPTERUS VOLUCELLA. 2OD 



constantly changing and of such interest in all their phases as are 

 those of the Flying Squirrel, a complete account can scarcely be 

 given. Certainly it is not easy for words to represent the merry, 

 rollicking, clon't-care manner in which they do everything. Such a 

 combination of earnestness and carelessness is seldom seen. For 

 they are earnest about their work, and in emptying a box of nuts 

 they seem to feel the great importance of their undertaking and the 

 necessity ot soberness and dignity in its execution, but yet one can- 

 not help seeing that all this is but assumed for the occasion, for their 

 eyes, and indeed their whole body, are all the time expressive of 

 mischief, and the little rogues are never so sedate that they do not 

 seem to be bubbling over with fun and to be ready at a moment's 

 notice to engage in any mischief that may occur to their scheming 

 little heads." * 



An adult that I once had in captivity used to make a practice of 

 leaping from the floor, or from some object in the room, to the top 

 of my head, where it would scratch and dig as if searching for beech- 

 nuts. 



The late Dr. Gideon B. Smith, of Baltimore, in a letter to Audubon 

 and Bachman, speaks thus ot these squirrels : " They are gregarious, 

 living together in considerable communities, and do not object to the 

 company of other and even quite different animals. For example, I 

 once assisted in taking down an old martin-box, which had been for 

 a great number of years on the top of a venerable locust tree near 

 my house, and which had some eight or ten apartments. As the box 

 fell to the ground we were surprised to see the great numbers of 

 Flying Squirrels, screech-owls, and leather- winged bats running from 

 it. We caught several of each, and one of the Flying Squirrels was 

 kept as a pet in a cage for six months. The various apartments of 

 the box were stored with hickorynuts, chestnuts, acorns, corn, <!\:c., 

 intended for the winter supply ol food. There must have been as 

 many as twenty Flying Squirrels in the box, as many bats, and we 



* American Naturalist, Vol. VII, No. 3, March, 1873, pp. 133-139. 



