THE LESSER FLYING SQUIRREL. 321 



if to judge their distance, and increase the power of rising. They 

 generally spring from some height down to an object they have 

 selected to reach. They are in the habit of hiding all the food 

 they do not immediately want ; and I have often observed that 

 they recollect the places in which they have concealed it. One 

 evening they amused themselves with hiding some nuts in the 

 creases under the knees of my brother's trousers, as he was 

 sitting still -, and after four days he let them out of the cage 

 again, when they directly examined all the creases for their 

 hidden store. Whenever they are abundantly supplied with 

 food, they continue to fetch and hide it till all has disappeared. 

 They sit quietly on the cornice of the room till tea is brought in, 

 when down they come, one after the other, either upon my head, 

 or upon the table ; and steal lumps of sugar so quickly that we 

 can seldom catch them. We are often obliged to place a saucer on 

 the top of the basin, to keep any sugar for ourselves. They then 

 watch their opportunity, and take small pieces of toast or butter, 

 which they carry to the cornice, and run round till they think 

 they have found a secure place to hide them in, when they 

 scratch with their fore-feet, push the food down with their 

 mouths and noses, and then stamp upon it. 



" On one occasion, when my room was about to be painted, 

 we found eighteen pieces of sugar, besides toast and lumps of 

 butter, in the corners of the cornice. During the painting, the 

 squirrels were not permitted to have their evening run j but 

 after three weeks' or a month's confinement, they were let out 

 again ; and we were much amused at the constant running 

 round, and the anxiety they were in, when they found their 

 stores gone. As soon as tea was brought in, they again stole 

 the sugar, but hid it in the corners of the room, under the 

 carpet, and behind some books. 



" In March of the second year, I found, one day just after the 

 cage had been cleaned, a young one : whether there had been 

 more which had been thrown away, I do not know - } but this 

 we reared, and he lived for some years. I then had an 

 opportunity of procuring two more pairs, which, after some 



Y 



