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RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



35 



The Rodentia of Rhode Island. 



The Flying Squirrel (Sciuropterus 

 Volucella), (Pallas), Geoffrey. 



The nocturnal habits of this beautiful 

 species render an estimate as to its abundance 

 rather difficult. The specimens that have 

 come to our notice have been obtained in 

 Cranston, Johnston, West Greenwich, and 

 Bristol, and it is probable that it is by no 

 means scarce. 



The hours of da3'light are usually spent in 

 sleei), in hollow trees, often in old nest-holes 

 of woodpeckers, where are born from four 

 to six naked young. April 16, 1884, Mr. 

 Charles Doe found a nest lined with soft hair, 

 like that of a rabbit, with four young, esti- 

 mated to be only a few days old. Jt was situ- 

 ated about five feet from the ground, in an 

 old stump so much decayed that it was easily 

 tumbled over and broken in pieces. The 

 mother ran a little distance and stopped, and 

 when pursued made little more exertion than 

 was necessar}' to keep out of reach, seem-- 

 ing with a method to entice the intruder 

 awa}' from her home. Early in Ma}' Mr. 

 Doe found another nest, fifteen feet from 

 the ground, in a maple, and an interesting 

 incident in connection was the fact that in 

 a tree only six feet awa^' was a Red-should- 

 ered Hawk's nest, from which four eggs 

 were taken. 



Late in April, 1883, a female was brought 

 to us, and shortly after, four young were 

 born. We fed the famih' on nuts and fruit ; 

 the}' grew rapidly, and b}' the middle of 

 Juh" were well furred and nearly as large 

 as the mother. Thej' were charming pets. 



According to Dr. C. Hart Merriam, the}' 

 maintain a liberal diet of nuts, seeds and 

 buds, beetles and perhaps other insects, and 

 do not hesitate to eat flesh, in confinement 

 eating birds' eggs and dead birds, the heads 

 of which they particularly relish. 



The mature animal is about six inches 

 long, the tail five inches ; the fur is very 

 plentiful and silk}- ; all the upper parts are 

 dark gray, washed over with brown ; all the 

 under parts a glistening white, often with a 

 creamy tint ; the tail is flat, very closely 

 furred, and usually carried out behind in a 

 graceful curve, or allowed to drop below the 

 body. The large and prominent eyes 

 are a most notable feature ; the skin on 



either side of the body grows out, present- 

 ing, when the limbs are extended, a flat 

 surface from the wrist to the ankle. By 

 means of this development it is able to 

 make, with no apparent effort, most astonish- 

 ing flights or leaps from the tops of tall trees. 

 As Audubon says, " One would be seen 

 darting from the topmost branches, and 

 with wide extended membranes and out- 

 spread tail, gliding diagonally through the 

 air, till it reaches the foot of a tree about 

 fifty yards off, when at the moment we ex- 

 pected to see it strike the earth it suddenly 

 turned upward and alighted on the body of 

 the tree." 



In the Rhode Island State collection, now 

 at New Orleans, is an albino specimen, re- 

 ported as captured in Johnston. The entire 

 pellage is a smoky white. 



We have never known of a capture dur- 

 ing the winter months, nor of the taking of 

 a specimen of the larger species, the North- 

 ern Flying Squirrel {Sciuropterus volucella 

 Jiudsonius) {Gmelin) Allen. The probabil- 

 ities ai'e that it does not occur with us. S. 



A Seasonable Diet. 



Merganser Goosander Fish Duck, — 

 This bird is perhaps the greatest fish mur- 

 derer extant. Much has been said about 

 the Mink, Otter, Herons, Loons, and Cormor- 

 ants as fish destroyers, but in many years 

 of experience in preparing specimens I have 

 never before found such a gorge in any of 

 them, and think they are respectable deni- 

 zens compared to our present subject, which 

 was recently killed at Lake Ontario. I re- 

 moved 127 fish from its throat, ranging 

 from one and a quarter to three and a half 

 inches in length, and consisting of full- 

 grown minnows, young bass, and others. 

 Whether these were intended for a meal 

 or a lunch only, is hard to determine. 

 The bird evidently was observing Lent with 

 some relish. Thos. W. Frainf. 



Rochester, N. Y., March 26. 



'' Messrs. Dickey & Allen write: ^' The 

 iris of the Snowy Owl is straw, of the Sharp- 

 shinned Hawk red, as observed from living 

 specimens. The White Owl was sent from 

 Dakota. We have given him a very large 

 cage. He takes his beefsteak regularly and 

 I is not averse to eating roast or stewed beef./ 



