THE FLYING-SQUIRREL. 53 



many years, but have never as yet seen any evidence of 

 it. I am glad that others have been more successful. 



"When a flight is about to be taken, the body is drawn 

 up until nearly globular in shape, and then the membrane 

 is again expanded simultaneously with the impetus given 

 to the body by the powerful hind-legs. If " wingless," 

 this squirrel would move quite similarly to the jumping- 

 mouse (Jaculus\ or even the better known white-footed 

 or deer mouse (Hesperomys). 



In a recent publication I find it stated that these 

 squirrels fly "smoothly and swiftly on an inclined air- 

 plane for thirty, forty, even fifty yards." This I consider 

 an exaggeration. It is perhaps within bounds to say that 

 this animal can sail down an " inclined air-plane " for 

 thirty yards ; but it is very rarely that they do so, and I 

 believe this distance is never exceeded. Their ordinary 

 flights are about five to ten yards in length ; a distance 

 that the common gray squirrel will clear at a single leap. 



It is highly improbable that these squirrels would 

 tarry long in a locality where the trees were so scattered 

 as to require longer flights. In fact, it is with flying- 

 squirrels, as with all creatures possessing some well- 

 marked peculiarity : the earliest accounts of the peculiar- 

 ity are exaggerated, and the inherent love of the marvel- 

 ous in man subsequently prevents for a long time a 

 correct view of the matter being acquired. 



A word more concerning this habit of flying. I have 

 twice met with individuals of this species that were 

 apparently partial reversions to the ancestral non-flying 

 squirrel. The membrane extending from the fore to the 

 hind limbs, that acts as wings, was scarcely developed, 

 and the fore limbs were somewhat stouter than in the 

 normal condition. In their movements, these squirrels 

 were more like the true Sciuridce, but, being associated 



