THE RODENTS, OR GNAWING ANIMALS 149 



their young are in most cases born. Green 

 corn and young wheat suffered greatly from 

 their depredations, and a wholesale war of 

 destruction used to be waged against them 

 everywhere. In Pennsylvania an old law 

 offered threepence a head from the public 

 treasury for every squirrel destroyed, and in 

 1749 the enormous sum of $40,000 was paid 

 out of the public funds for this purpose. In 

 those days vast migrations of these squirrels 

 used to take place, exciting not only the 

 wonder but the fear of the old settlers. In 

 the Far Northwest multitudes of squirrels 

 used to congregate in different districts, 

 forming scattered bands, which all moved 

 in an easterly direction, gathering into larger 

 bodies as they went. Neither mountains 

 nor rivers stopped them. On they came, a 

 devouring army, laying waste the corn- and 

 wheat-fields, until guns, cats, hawks, foxes, 

 and owls destroyed them. 



Photo by W P. Dandt] 



RED-FOOTED GRO UN D -SQJUIR REL 



This species has some of the characteristics of the tree-squirrels^ among 



them the busby tail 



THE FLYING-SQUIRRELS. 



One of the finest squirrels is the TAGUAN, a large squirrel of India, Ceylon, and the Malacca 

 forests. It is a " flying-squirrel," with a body 2 feet long, and a bushy tail of the same length. 

 Being nocturnal, it is not often seen ; but when it leaps it unfolds a flap of skin on either side > 

 which is stretched (like a sail) when the fore and hind limbs are extended in the act of leaping ; 

 it then forms a parachute. The colour of this squirrel is gray, brown, and pale chestnut. There 

 are a number of different flying-squirrels in China, Formosa, and Japan, and in the forests of 

 Central America. One small flying-squirrel, the POLATOUCHE is found in Northeast Russia 

 and Siberia. It flies from tree to tree with immense bounds, assisted by the " floats " on its 

 sides. Though only six inches long, it can cover distances of 30 feet and more without diffi- 

 culty. Wherever there are birch forests this little squirrel is found. One nearly as small is a 

 native of the Southern states of 

 America, ranging as far south as 

 Guatemala. 



In Africa, south of the Sa- 

 hara, the place of the Oriental fly- 

 ing-squirrel is taken by a separate 

 family. They have a different ar- 

 rangement of the parachute from 

 that of the flying-squirrels of India. 

 This wide fold of skin is supported 

 in the Asiatic squirrels by a carti- 

 lage extending from the wrist. In 

 the South African flying-squirrels 



this support springs from the elbow, p^ b, Dr. R. w. s*/>w<] [^ 



not from the wrist; they have also BLACK FOX-SQUIRREL 



horny plates On the under-SUrfaCC The fur of this species is as -valuable as that of the gray squirrel 



