PLYING SQUIRRELS OP THE OLD WORLD. 299 



dred of ordinary spectators would be able to say which 

 was monkey, which was rodent, and which was mar- 

 supial. 



It is rather a remarkable fact, too, that the largest 

 species of these groups resemble each other in size as 

 well as in form. Take, for example, average speci- 

 mens of the colugo, the petauriste, and the taguan, 

 and there will be but an inch or two difference between 

 them, either in length or breadth. Again, not only 

 are all these animals furnished with the skin membrane 

 that enables them, to take their aerial flight ; but their 

 toes are elongated in a manner very similar to that 

 which we have seen in the phalangists. 



In the Taguan, the membrane is greatly developed, 

 reaching to the roots of the toes of the fore feet, and 

 to the heel of the hind feet. The habits of this and 

 the other flying squirrels are almost identical with 

 those of the petaurists, except that the former are 

 not nocturnal in their habits. Their generic names 

 all allude to their power of flight. For example, 

 the Taguan belongs to the genus pteromys, or winged 

 mouse ; the word which is here translated as mouse 

 being widely used in Greek to represent any rodent 

 animal of moderate size. Other Taguans and Assapans 

 belong to the genus sciuropterus, or winged squirrels. 



Like most of the active rodents, the Flying 

 Squirrels are very capable of domestication, and will 

 soon learn to prefer the society of human beings who 

 are good to them, to that of their own kind. There 

 is a singularly interesting account of a tame Flying 

 Squirrel, given by Miss Eden, in her charming work, 

 "Up the Country," Vol. II., p. 130. As her little 



