120 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Sub-family c. Sciurina. 

 SciURUS. (Gr. Z/au, a shadow; ovpd, a tail.) 



Europseus (Lat. European'], the Squirrel. 



It is easily domesticated, and is very amusing in its habits 

 when suffered to go at large in a room or kept in a spacious 

 cage ; but when confined in a little cramped box, especially in 

 one of the cruel wheel cages, its energies and playfulness are 

 quite lost. The colour of the English Squirrel is a deep reddish 

 brown, and its tail so large and bushy as to shade its whole 

 body, when carried curled over its back, from whence it derives 

 its name of Sciurus, or Shadow-tail. 



THE FLYING SQUIRREL. 



The FLYING SQUIRRELS are well known by their power of 

 making enormous sweeps through the air. They are enabled 

 to make these leaps by a fold of skin at each side, which, when 

 spread by the extended paws, forms a kind of parachute, 

 that supports them in their passage through the air. When 

 they wish to pass from one tree to another, they spring 

 downwards from a lofty branch, stretch out all their legs, and 

 sweep to their mark with an upward curve. The species of 

 Flying Squirrel here represented is a native of the Rocky 



