134 OREGON FLYING SQUIRREL. 



The habits of this handsome Flying Squirrel, we regret to say, are al- 

 most unkno^vn to us, but from its general appearance, it is undoubtedly as 

 active and volatile as our common little species ; and much do we regret 

 that Ave have never seen it launch itself into the air, and sail from the 

 highest branch of one of the enormous pines of the valley of the Columbia 

 river, to some other tall and magnificent tree. Indeed much should we 

 like to know the many works of the Creator, that j'et remain to be dis- 

 covered, examined, figured, and described, in the vast mountain-valleys 

 and forests, beyond the highest peaks of the great Rocky Chain. 



We hope, however, to obtain a good deal of information through va- 

 rious sources ere the conclusion of this work, from the remote portions 

 of our Continent that have not yet been "well explored by naturalists, 

 and we shall then perhaps be able to say something more in regard to 

 the subject of this article, of which we can now only add, that I\Ir. 

 TowNSEND remarks, that it inhabits the pine woods of the Columbia, 

 near the sea, and has the habits of P. volucella. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTEIBDTIOIf. 



Dr. RicHARDSox (Fauna Boreali Americana, p. 195,) speaks of a Flying 

 Squirrel, •which w^as " discovered by Mr. Drujimontj on the Rocky moun- 

 tains, living in dense pine-forests, and seldom venturing from its retreats, 

 except in the night." This animal he considers, a variety of P. sahrinus, 

 (var. B. Atpinus.) The locality in which it was found, and parts of his 

 description, however, on the whole incline us to suppose that the speci- 

 men procured by Mr. Drcmmond was one of our present species, although 

 of a very large size. Dr. Richardson says, " I have received specimens 

 of it from the head of Elk river, and also from the south branch of the 

 Mackenzie." So that if this supposition be correct, we may conclude that 

 it inhabits a very extensive tract of country, and is, perhaps, most com- 

 mon on, and to the west, of the Rocky Moimtains ; in which last locality 

 Mr. TowNSEND met with it, in the woods on the shores of the Columbia 

 river. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



There are no accounts of this species of Flj-ing Squirrel, or of the 

 larger one, P. sahrinus, in Lewis and Clarke's Journal. Those travellers 

 not having, as we suppose, heard of either, although they traversed a 



