192 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



with a nictitating membrane. It bites when irritated, with 

 considerable effect, and is not often tamed. 



The female brings forth in May, from two to four at a 

 time ; the young are born incomplete, without hair, and 

 with the eyes closed, which do not open for about a fort- 

 night. Maternal instincts, in common with all others, how- 

 ever blind, however involuntary in the creature, are always 

 proportioned to the necessity in which they originate. In 

 proportion as the young of these animals are helpless and 

 imperfect, in the same ratio, we may fairly conclude, are 

 the affections and maternal cares of its parent increased ; 

 thus we find that the mother warms and covers them in the 

 ample folds of the lateral membrane, which at this period 

 become employed in an object secondary, perhaps, to its 

 original destination, and when she quits the nest to find 

 food for them or for herself, she covers them with the 

 greatest care with the moss accumulated in her bed. 



The fur of this animal, though it is an inhabitant of very 

 high latitudes, is said never to change in colour with the 

 season, like that of many other arctic quadrupeds. 



It may be proper to observe, that this species has been 

 named Sapan by Vicq d'Azyr and by Desmarest ; but as the 

 word was decidedly borrowed from a Virginian root, which 

 was properly applicable to the American species, the name 

 cannot be retained. 



The American species, SciurusVolucella, Lin. is described 

 by Buffon, under the name of Polatouche, which, as already 

 stated, is applicable to the last. F. Cuvier has modified 

 the name Sapan, applied improperly, as already stated, to 

 the last species, and given it to this. Catesby and Edwards 

 have described the present species under the name of Fly- 

 ing Squirrel, but as this has rather a subgeneric than a 

 specific allusion, it maybe better to distinguish the present 

 under the name of Assapan, from the last under that of 

 Polatouche. 



