No- 42- Pteromys Petaurista- 



JERDON, No. 160, PAGE 174; BROWN FLYING SQUIRREL. 



Is this the beautiful animal often found in Burmah ? if so, it 

 is certainly as Mr. Elliot says, at page 175 of Jerdon, " a beautiful 

 grey," some, perhaps, darker than others, but all with most delicate- 

 ly soft fur, or is it the Burmah species, P. Cineraceus, Jerdon, 

 No. 162, page 177 ? Two I have seen in captivity, were exceed- 

 ingly gentle and were fed almost entirely on bread and milk and fruit. 

 I can well understand Tickell's remark that it feeds " occasionally 

 on beetles and the larvae of insects," for I know that the common 

 palm squirrel, No. 155, page 170 of Jerdon, is very fond of such 

 diet. I have heard a colony of the flying squirrels that frequent- 

 ed the trees about a house I lived in at Kemindine near Rangoon 

 accused, but I believe most unjustly, of robbing the pigeon roost at 

 night of young birds and eggs. That, no creature without wings 

 or a parachute could have done this, I did believe, but as the place 

 abounded with fish and barn owls, Jerdon's birds, Vol. 1., Nos. 72 

 and 60, I blamed them, but not the beautiful and gentle squirrels. 

 I saw at Tounghoo in Burmah, just after dawn, a flying squirrel 

 take very nearly as long a flight as that mentioned at page 176 of 

 Jerdon, and as there stated, rise slightly at the end of the flight.* 

 A brother officer saw one sail over the Prome road, about a mile 

 north of Rangoon, and this flight, as the wood was cleared to some 

 distance from both sides at the time, must have been nearer eighty 

 than sixty yards. I do not remember having heard the voice 

 of this animal. I sent a very fine skin from Rangoon to the 

 Madras Museum. 



Flying squirrels are as stated at page 175 of Jerdon, "quite 

 " nocturnal in their habits ;" therefore although they are, I imagine, 

 to be found wherever there is deep forest they are seldom seen, 

 even by those few who at dusk or dawn visit their haunts, and 

 when seen still more seldom recognised : for until the spectator has 

 become acquainted with this beautiful animal, he may easily take 

 for a kite or more probably for some large owl, the shadowy 

 object which he sees for a moment only, perhaps at a distance 



* Vide Memoranda following page 79. VAGRANT. 



