222 COMMON FLYING-SQUIRREL. 



country, (England,) is said to remove her j'oung in the same manner, if 

 disturbed. Finding this the case we often took the young Squirrels out 

 of their nest, for the purpose of watching the mother carry them away, 

 which she did by doubling the little one up under her body with her 

 fore-feet and mouth till she could take hold of the thigh and the neck, 

 when she woidd jump away so fast that it was difficult to see whether 

 she w^as carrjing her young one or not. 



'• As the young increased in size (which they soon do) and in weight, 

 the undertaking became more difficult. We then saw the mother turn 

 the young one on its back, and while she held the thigh in her mouth, 

 the fore-legs of the young one were clasped round her neck. Sometimes 

 when she was attempting to jump upon some earthen pots which I had 

 placed in the cage, she was overbalanced and fell with her young to the 

 ground, she would drop the j'oung Squirrel, so as to prevent her own 

 weight from crushing it, which would have been the case if they had 

 fallen together. I have seen the young ones carried in this manner till 

 they were half-grown." 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



This species is far more numerous than it is generally supposed to be ; 

 in traps set for the smaller rodentia in localities where we had never seen 

 the Flying Squirrel, we frequently caught it. We have met with it in 

 all the Atlantic States, and obtained specimens in Upper Canada, within 

 a mile of the falls of Niagara. In Lower Canada it is replaced by a 

 larger species, (P. sabrinus^ and we have reason to believe that it does 

 not exist much to the north of the great lakes ; we obtained specimens 

 in Florida and in Texas, and have seen it in Missouri, and according to 

 LicHTENSTEiN it is found in Mexico. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



This species was among the earliest of all our American quadrupeds 

 noticed by travellers. Governor Smith of Virginia, in 1624, speaks of it 

 as " a small beaste they call Assapanick, but we call them Flying Squir- 

 rels, because spreading their legs, and so stretching the largeness of their 

 skins, that they have been seen to fly thirty or forty yards." Ray and Lin- 

 N^us supposed it to be only a variety of the European P. volans, from 

 which it differs very widely. Linnaeus arranged it under Mus ; Gmelin, 

 Pallas, Cuvier, Ray, and Brisson under Sciurus ; F. Cuvier and Desma- 

 REST under Sciuropterus ; Fischer under Petauristus ; and Geoffrov and 

 more recent naturalists, under Pteromys. 



