Il8 ANIMALS OF LAND AND SEA 



of twenty feet or more. Their long jaws were armed with 

 formidable teeth, and they must have been very uncomfortable 

 creatures to encounter. All of the remaining sorts of flying 

 animals except the insects are gliders with the surface of the 

 body increased in various ways so that they are able greatly 

 to prolong their leaps by supporting themselves upon the air. 

 Except for the fishes these are all climbing animals inhabiting 

 the forests, and except for the reptiles they are active only at 

 night. The reason for this is that in order to glide successfully 

 they must attain a considerable height, and during a long glide 

 they are practically helpless; they cannot dodge about and 

 twist and turn as do the birds and bats, so that if they came 

 out in daylight they would run great danger from the hawks. 



One of our very common animals, though one not often 

 noticed because of its strictly nocturnal habits and on account 

 of its small size, is the little flying squirrel. Flying squirrels 

 live everywhere in northern forests, in North America, in Europe 

 and in Asia, and in the East Indies some are found which 

 are almost as large as cats. In the flying squirrels the skin 

 along the sides of the body is extended outward in a broad 

 flap stretching from the fore to the hind legs and supported 

 by a long bone arising from the base of the hand, and the tail 

 is flattened and very dense instead of rounded and loose as in 

 the other squirrels. Supported by these strips of skin the 

 flying squirrels are enabled to make enormous leaps from tree 

 to tree, covering sometimes as much as one hundred feet; but 

 on the ground they are clumsy and awkward. 



Our flying squirrels are so retiring and so small that in many 

 of the places where they are commonest only a very few people 

 know of their existence. They spend the day in holes in trees 

 from which they emerge only after sunset. But they are rather 

 sensitive, and they usually may be frightened out of their holes 

 by tapping the trunk of the tree in which they live. However, 

 it is one thing to get a flying squirrel out into the open, and 

 quite another thing to catch him. He comes from his hole like 

 a flash, cHmbs to the top of the tree, keeping the trunk between 



