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NATURAL HISTORY, 



THE FLYING SQUIRfiEL. 



THE flying squirrel is of a particular species, and 

 resembles in few particulars either the squirrel or the 

 rat. He is more common in America than in Europe, 

 where he is seldom seen, except in Lithuania and Rus- 

 sia. This little animal dwells upon trees, like the 

 squirrel. He goes from branch to branch ; and when 

 he leaps upon another tree, his skin, which hangs 

 loose on both sides of his body, is stretched forward 

 by his fore legs, and backward by the hind legs, and 

 increases the surface of his body without adding to 

 its weight, and consequently retards the acceleration 

 of his fall ; so that this animal, with one leap, bounds 

 to a great distance. This motion is not like the flight 

 of a bird, neither like the fluttering of a bat ; both 

 which motions are made by striking the air with re- 

 peated vibrations. It. is one single leap, effected by 

 the first impulse, the motion of which is only prolong- 

 ed, and longer, as the body of the animal, presenting 

 to the air the greater surface, finds a greater resist- 

 ance, and foils more slowly. 



