310 TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 



extended, their bodies are broadened and flat- 

 tened, the tail stiffened and slightly curved, and 

 a curious tremulous motion runs through all. 

 It is very obvious that a deliberate attempt is 

 made to present the broadest surface possible to 

 the air, and I think a red squirrel might leap 

 from almost any height to the ground without 

 serious injury. Our flying squirrel is in no 

 proper sense a flyer. On the ground he is more 

 helpless than a chipmunk because less agile. 

 He can only sail or slide down a steep incline 

 from the top of one tree to the foot of another. 

 The flying squirrel is active only at night; 

 hence its large, soft eyes, its soft fur and its 

 gentle, shrinking ways. It is the gentlest and 

 most harmless of our rodents. A pair of them 

 for two or three successive years had their nest 

 behind the blinds of an upper Avindow of a 

 large, unoccu^Died country house near me. You 

 could stand in the room inside and observe the 

 happy family through the window pane against 

 which their nest pressed. There on the win- 

 dow sill lay a pile of large, shining chestnuts, 

 which they were evidently, holding against a 

 time of scarcity, as the pile did not diminish 

 while I observed them. The nest was com- 

 posed of cotton and wool which they filched 

 from a bed in one of the chambers, and it was 

 always a mystery how they got into the room 

 to obtain it. There seemed to be no other 

 avenue but the chimney flue. 



There are always gradations in nature, or in 

 natural life; no very abrupt departures. If 



