660 MONOGRAPHS OF NORTH AMERICAN RODENTIA. 
1772,* Forster} described the Flying Squirrel of Hudson’s Bay as the 
“Greater Flying Squirrel”, which, he says, is “vastly different .... in size aad 
color” from the Flying Squirrel of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. 
This is Pennant’s “Severn River Squirrel”, and the ‘Sciurus volans major” 
of Pallas,t to which Gmelin, in 1788, gave the name Sciurus hudsonius. 
Shaw, in 1801, changed Gmelin’s name to Sciurus sabrinus in consequence 
of the name hudsonius having been also applied to the Chickaree, or Red 
Squirrel (Scirus hudsonius). As, however, the Flying Squirrels and the 
Chickarees proved to belong to different genera, this double use of the name 
hudsonius becomes tenabie. 
The smaller Southern Flying Squirrel was described by Fernandez, 
from Mexican specimens, under the native name Quamichpatlan, in 1651, 
and as early as 1743 it was figured and described by Catesby from Carolina 
specimens. ‘lo this species (in the mean time also described by Brisson, 
Edwards, Pennant, Buffon, and others), Pallas gave the name Sciurus vo/u- 
* Among the many earlier references to this animal, which have, however, no direct bearing upon 
its technical history, are many that are interesting from their quaint character. Thus, the celebrated 
Captain John Smith, in his Account of Virginia, published originally as early as 1606, in alluding to this 
animal, says:—‘‘A small beast they have, they eall Assapanick, but wee call them flying Squirrels, because 
spreading their legs, and so stretching the largenesse of their skinnes, that they seeme to fly thirtie or 
fortie yards.”—(Purchas’s Piigrims, vol. iv, p. 1695.) 
Somewhat later, the good Thomas Morton, in his ‘New English Canaan” (p. 82), speaks of 
“a little flying Squirrill, with bat like winges, which hee spreads when hee jumpes from tree to tree 
and does no harme”. 
In 1636, the Northern Flying Squirrel was also noticed by Sagard-Theodat, whose curious descrip- 
tion is among the most detailed of the early notices of this animal. I am favored with the following 
transcript of his notice, through the attentions of my colleague, Dr. Coues, taken from p. 678 of vol. iii- 
of the 8vo French ed. of 1866, of his Histoire du Canada, a literal reprint of the original of 1636 (p. 745) :— 
“Tls ont aussi trois sortes @’escurienx differends, & tous trois plus beaux & plus petits que ceux de 
nostre Europe. Les plus estimez & rares sont les escurieux volans, nomméz Saboiiesquanta, qui ont 
la couleur cendrée, la teste un peu grosse, le poil doux & court & les yeux petits. Ils sont appellez vo- 
lans, non qu’ils ayent des aysles, mais & raison qu’ils ont une certaine peau anx deux costez prenans de 
la patte de derriere 4 celle de deuant, qu’ils replient fort proprement contre leur ventre quand ils mar- 
chent, puis Pestendent quand ils volent, coumme ils font aysement d’arbre en arbre, & de terre iusques an 
dessus.” 
Another writer, in an account of Virginia, originally published in 1649, speaks of “two sorts of 
Squirrels”, one of which is “ called a flying one, for that she spreads like a Batt a certaine loose skin she 
hath and so flyes a good way ”.—(Iorce’s Tracts, vol. ii, No. 8, p. 16.) 
Clayton, writing in 1688, in enumerating the Squirrels of Virginia, says :—‘ The second is the fly ing 
Squirrel of a lighter dun Colour, and much less than the English Squirrel ; the skin on either side the 
body extended is very large betwixt the Fore-Leg and Hind-Leg which helps them much in their skipp- 
ing from one Bough to another that they will leap farther than the Fox Squirrel, though much less, yet 
this is still rather skipping than flying, though the Distinction be well-enough.”—(orce’s Tracts, vol. iii, 
No. 12, p. 36.) 
Lawson, in 1709, also ihus refers to the Southern Flying Squirrel in terms no less strained :— 
- He has not wings as Birds or Bats have, they being a fine thin skin cover’d with Hair, as the 
a2 of the parts are. This from the Fore-Foot to the Hinder-Feet, which is extended, and holds so 
much Air as buoys him up from one Tree to another, that are ereates distances asunder, ites any other 
Squirrels can reach by jumping or springing . ; » 
t Phil. Travs. vol. lxii, 1772, p. 379. 
$ Nov. Spec. Glires, 1778. p. 354 
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