570 Habits of the American Flying Squirrel. 



of the body appears a little hollowed, like the palm of the 

 hand with the fingers nearly expanded. I do not mean to 

 assert that, in a wild state, they never descend except horizon- 

 tally ; but they certainly do not do so in a general way. I have 

 seen my squirrel come down from the cornice of the room 

 (12ft. high) upon the table; and, in his descent, finding that, 

 if he continued in the direction in which he started, he 

 would fall upon the lighted candle, he has suddenly thrown 

 his body sideways, and thus turned about a foot out of the 

 first direction ; but he never appeared to have the power of 

 turning much more than that. I can, however, easily con- 

 ceive that, in a wild state, descending from a great height, 

 from some tree, they may, in some measure, guide themselves 

 by this power of turning sideways, and be carried to great 

 distances by the power of the wind, and appear, as Bewick 

 says, like numerous falling leaves. 



Like all the squirrel tribe, they are in the habit of hiding 

 all the food they do not immediately want to eat; and I had 

 many opportunities of observing their recollection of the 

 places in which they had concealed their nuts, &c. My 

 brother told me, that one evening they amused themselves 

 with hiding the nuts he had given them in the creases of his 

 trousers, under his knees, as he was sitting ; and, after four 

 days, he let them out of the cage again, when they directly 

 examined all the creases of his trousers for their hidden 

 treasures. I found that whenever they were abundantly 

 supplied with food, they were not easily satisfied with the 

 quantity they were allowed to take, but would continue to 

 fetch and hide it till all had disappeared. 



My friends were often amused with watching the squirrels 

 sitting quietly on the cornice of the room, over the curtain, 

 till tea was brought in, when down they would come, one 

 after the other, either upon my head, or upon the table, and 

 steal lumps of sugar so quickly that we could seldom catch 

 them. We were often obliged to place a saucer on the top 

 of the basin, to keep any sugar for ourselves. They would 

 then watch their opportunity, and take small pieces of toast 

 or butter, which they carried to the cornice, and ran round 

 till they thought they had found a secure place to hide them 

 in, when they used to scratch with their fore feet, push the 

 food down with their mouths and noses, and then stamp 

 upon it. 



On one occasion, when my room was going to be painted, 

 we found eighteen pieces of sugar, besides toast and lumps 

 of butter, in the corners of the cornice. Of course, during 

 the painting, the squirrels were not permitted to have their 



