THE FLYING SQUIRRELS. 89 



This species inhabits the peninsula of India and Ceylon, Malacca and Siam, where it is found 

 only in the forests, living in trees, either singly or in pairs. Its activity is chiefly nocturnal, in which, 

 respect it differs from the ordinary Squirrels. During the day it sleeps in the holes of trees, but at 

 night it comes forth, climbing and leaping with the greatest rapidity about the trees on which it 

 lives. While thus engaged the lateral membranes are loosely folded at the sides of the body; but 

 from time to time the Squirrel wishes to pass from one tree to another at some distance, and then it 

 ascends to a considerable elevation and springs off, at the same time extending all four limbs as much 

 as possible, when the tightly-stretched folds of skin lend the body a support, which enables it to glide 

 through the air to some distance, although it seems always to alight at a lower level than that from 



which it started. During these aerial excursions the long bushy tail serves as a sort of rudder, and 

 enables the animal even to change its coui'se during flight. Of the habits of the Taguan very little 

 is known. It appears to feed upon fruits, and is exceedingly shy and fearful. Of a nearly-allied 

 species which he observed in China, Mr. Swinhoe says that the nest, which was placed high up in a, 

 large tree, measured about three feet in diameter, and was composed of interlaced twigs, and lined 

 with dry grass. It contained only a single young Squirrel ; but this might be exceptional. 



Some nine or ten additional species of the genus Pteromys, which includes the Flying Squirrels 

 with cylindrical tails, are found in the forest regions of India and of the countries to the east of that 

 peninsula, including China, Formosa, and Japan. The same region also harbours three or four species 

 of another kind of Flying Squirrel, in which the long hairs of the tail are arranged in two rows, and 

 the tail is flat instead of cylindrical. These animals, to which the name of Sduropterus has been 

 given, are, however, more numerous in the north, where their distribution extends from Lapland and 

 Finland, through Siberia, to Northern China and Japan. Squirrels of this genus also occur over the 

 whole continent of North America and as far south as Guatemala. The best known of the Old 

 World species is the POLATOUCHE (Sduropterus volans), which inhabits the north-eastern parts of 



