462 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 84 



forearm, forefeet, entire head, chin, throat, and underparts are 

 black, but the remainder of the pelage is normal. Nine of these 

 specimens have more black hairs on the head than the others. The 

 throat and chest are washed \\dth pinldsh buff on all but two of this 

 series. Two have whitish underparts. Three have the entire under- 

 parts suffused with pinkish buff. On all the others this pinkish-buff 

 suffusion extends backward along the median line. The under sur- 

 face of the tail is normally ferruginous. 



Fred E. Brooks (1911, p. 14) reports that he has seen this squirrel at 

 French Creek, Upshur County, and in beech woods near Edray, 

 Pocahontas County. Specimens taken at Oglebay Park, Ohio County, 

 according to A. B. Brooks (1929, p. 543), have been identified as 

 Sciurus niger rujiventer. 



Greenbrier County: Lcwisburg, 15; White Sulphur Springs, 9. 

 Hampshire County: 1. 

 Pocahontas County: Academy, 1. 



GLAUCOMYS VOLANS VOLANS (Linnaeus) 



Small Eastern Flying Squirrel 



These small flying squirrels seem to be fairly common in all the 

 wooded parts of the State. Because of their crepuscular and nocturnal 

 habits, they are rarely seen. In Mason County these squirrels were 

 found in the deciduous woods on the bluffs along the Ohio River. 

 They seem to be fairly numerous in the open oak woods on the flat- 

 topped hills of Barbour County. On warm nights, during the first 

 week of June 1936, Perrygo and Lingebach repeatedly heard thuds 

 and the familiar scratching of claws on the bark of trees around their 

 camp 6 miles south of Philippi. In the lowlands along Nicholas Creek 

 near Gilboa on May 6, 1936, one was found curled up at the bottom of 

 an abandoned woodpecker hole in a dead tree. One was trapped on 

 November 1, 1936, on the trunk of a white oak in a mixed deciduous 

 and coniferous fprest near the top of Katis Mountain south of White 

 Sulphur Springs. On September 2, 1895, Thaddeus Surber collected 

 a male at an altitude of 3,200 feet on Katis Mountain; this specimen 

 subsequently became the type of Sciuropterus silus Bangs. Howell 

 (1918, p. 22) has concluded that silus is "an immature individual of 

 volans, evidently a runt." Other specimens from the same mountain, 

 including one examined by Bangs, are clearly referable to volans. 

 At an altitude of 3,700 feet, on the top of Cranberry Mountain, they 

 seemed to prefer the big white oaks. Along Williams River they were 

 found in a thick forest of sugar maple, oak, and beech. On the colder 

 nights of late spring and early fall very little activity was noted. 

 Nevertheless, flying squirrels leave their nests from time to time during 

 winter months, for C. G. Rorebeck collected two males at Travellers 

 Repose during the last week of February 1897. 



