COMMON FLYING-SQUIRREL. 221 



The Flying-Squirrels never build their nest of leaves on the trees dur- 

 ing summer like the true squirrels, but confine themselves to a hollow, 

 or some natural cavity in the branches or trunk. We have verv fre- 

 quently found them inhabiting the eaves and roofs of houses, and we dis- 

 covered a considerable number of them in the crevices of a rock in the 

 vicinity of the Red Sulphur Springs in Virginia. 



Although the food of this species generally consists of nuts and seeds 

 of various kinds, together with the buds of trees in winter, yet we have 

 known many instances in which it manifested a strong desire for animal 

 food. On several occasions we found it caught in box-traps set for the 

 ermine, which had been baited only with meat. The bait, (usually a 

 blue jay,) was frequently wholly consumed by the little prisoner. In a 

 room in which several Flying-Squirrels had been suffered to go at large, 

 we one evening left a pine grosbeak, (Cort/tkus enucleator,) a rare speci- 

 men, which we intended to preserve on the following morning. On 

 searching for it however next day it was missing ; we discovered its feet 

 and feathers at last in the box of the Flying-Squirrels, they having con- 

 sumed the whole body. 



This species has from three to six young at a time. We have been 

 assured by several persons that they produce young but once a year in 

 the Northern and Middle States. In Carolina, however, we think they 

 have two litters in a season, as we have on several occasions seen young 

 in May and in September. 



A writer in Loudox's Magazine, under the signature of D. W. C, says 

 at p. 571, vol. ix., in speaking of the habits of this animal in confinement 

 in England, " I found that as soon as the female was pregnant she would 

 not allow any one to approach her ; and as the time went on, she became 

 more savage and more tenacious of the part of the cage which she had 

 fixed upon for her nest, which she made of leaves put in for that purpose. 

 Two of the females produced young last spring. I think the period of 

 their gestation is a month ; but of this fact I am not certain. The young 

 are blind for three weeks after their birth, and do not reach puberty till 

 the next spring. I never obtained more than two young ones at a time, 

 nor more than one kindle in a year from the same female. The young 

 were generally born in March or April. The teats of the female appear 

 through the fur some time before she brings forth. One of them produced 

 two young ones without making a distinct nest, or separating herself 

 from the rest, but the consequence was that they disappeared on the 

 third day." 



" If on any occasion we disturbed the young in their nest, the mother 

 removed them to another part of the cage. The common squirrel of this 



