1936] 



MAMMALS OF OREGON 



163 



or poisoning. In most localities they are practically harmless and 

 could easily be made of some slight value as food. One that the 

 writer cooked in camp at Jordan River was greatly enjoyed. The 

 meat was dark, but rich and tender, and of very good flavor. Preble 

 and his teamster, while camping in eastern Oregon in 1915, ate 

 many of the nearly grown young, and on several occasions used the 

 clear oily fat for shortening and with good success. These wood- 

 chucks are just big fat squirrels, and there is no reason why they 

 should not be commonly utilized as food. 



Subfamily PTEROMYINAE: Flying Squirrels 



GLAUCOMYS SABRINUS OREGONENSIS (BACHMAN) 



OREGON FLYING SQUIRREL 



Pteromys oregonensis Bachman, Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. Jour. 8 : 101, 1839. 



Type locality. " Pine woods of the Columbia near the Sea." 

 General characters. Fur long and very soft; tail wide and flat, skin of 

 sides full and attached to wrists and ankles so as to form a broad monoplane 

 when the feet are extended (pi. 26). This is the darkest and richest colored of 

 the four forms of flying squirrels in Oregon, and apparently the smallest, al- 

 though all are of the large northern group, and vary but little in size. Upper 

 parts washed with rich hazel 

 or chestnut brown over dark 

 plumbeous underfur; tail be- 

 coming dusky towards tip; 

 ring around eye dusky, cheeks 

 brownish gray; under parts 

 creamy white, washed with 

 buffy or cinnamon, darkest 

 on lower surface of tail. Im- 

 mature specimens duller and 

 more dusky. 



Measurements. Total 

 length, 300 mm; tail, 127; 

 foot, 39; ear (dry), 17. 

 Townsend's original descrip- 

 tion gave the length as 12% 

 inches and spread of mem- 

 branes 8 inches (1839, p. 329). 



FIGURE 31. Range of four forms of flying squir- 

 rels in Oregon: 1, Olaucomys sabrinus oregonen- 

 sis; 2, G. s. fuliginosus: 3, G. 8. klamathensis / 

 4, G. 8. bullatus. Type localities circled. 



Distribution and habi- 

 tat. T h e s e dark and 

 richly colored flying 

 squirrels occupy the 

 dense forests of the humid coast region of southern British Colum- 

 bia, Washington, and Oregon, south at least to the mouth of the 

 Rogue River, and east to the base of the Cascade Range (fig. 31). 



General habits. These beautiful large-eyed, soft-furred squirrels 

 are mainly nocturnal and hence are rarely seen and little known. 

 Trappers find them in traps set for marten in the woods, wood- 

 choppers see them as they soar away from falling trees in which they 

 had their homes, and field naturalists get a few for specimens by 

 setting traps on stumps, branches, or leaning trunks, and sometimes 

 in old cabins and abandoned houses. They are never found far from 

 timber and rarely on the ground. Their usual method of travel is 

 to run up one tree and soar away to the next, always alighting at 

 a lower level than the starting point. 



