THE TAGUAN FLYING SQUIRREL. 593 
The Dormouse is rather gregarious in its habits, so that whenever one nest is discovered, 
several others may generally be found at no very great distance. These nests are of 
considerable dimensions, being about six inches in diameter, and are composed of grass, 
leaves, and similar substances. The entrance to the nest is from above. 
The young animals are generally three or four in number at a birth, and make their 
appearance about the end of spring, or the beginning of summer. It is probable that 
there may be a second brood towards the end of autumn, as Mr. Bell received from one 
locality in the month of September one half-grown Dormouse, which had evidently been 
born in the spring, and three very little specimens, which were apparently not more than 
a week or two old. They are born blind, but are able to see in a very few days, and in a 
remarkably short space of time become independent of their parents. 
Like many other rodent animals, the Dormouse carries the food to its mouth with its 
fore-paws, while it sits upright on its hinder legs. It is also able to suspend itself by the 
hind-feet from any convenient branch, and may often be seen hanging in this manner, and 
eating as comfortably as if it were seated on firm ground. The Dormouse is not confined 
to England, but is spread over the whole of Southern Europe, and is common even in 
Sweden. 
TAGUAN FLYING SQUIRREL.—Pléeromys Petanrista. 
THE beautiful and active group of animals of which our English Squirrel is so familiar 
an example, are found in almost every portion of the globe, and, with one or two exceptions, 
live almost exclusively among the branches of trees. In order to enable them to maintain 
a firm clasp upon the branches and bark, they are furnished with long, finger-like toes 
upon the fore-feet, which are armed with sharp curved claws. 
In the Flying Squirrels, of which the Tacuan is a good example, the skin of the 
flanks is modified in a method similar to that which has already been noticed in the 
Petaurists of Australia and the Colugo of Java. This skin is so largely developed, that 
when the animal is sitting at its ease, its paws but just appear from under the soft 
folds of the delicate and fur-clad membrane. When the creature intends to make one of 
its marvellous leaps, it stretches all its four limbs to their fullest extent, and is upborne 
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