4 o 



seeks upon the first intimation of danger. He spends the 

 greater part of the day within the confines of the burrow and 

 ventures forth to feed chiefly in the early hours of the morn- 

 ing and in the evening, and thus becomes excessively fat. I 

 know of a Woodchuck skin from an individual killed during 

 the latter part of summer, which was so thickly coated with 

 fat that when tacked to the side of a barn it dripped oil on 

 warm days, two years later. The tendency to development 

 of excessive fatness in the Woodchuck is however a part of 

 Nature's programme in fitting the animal for existence during 

 the winter, and the fat is really a supply of fuel for future use. 

 About the middle of September at the first indication of 

 frost, the Woodchuck retires to the depths of his burrow and 

 promptly enters into his long winter's sleep, not again to 

 awaken until spring has come and Nature once more bids 

 adieu to cold weather. 



Sciuropterus volans (Linn.). Southern Flying 

 Squirrel. 



The Flying Squirrel is the most strictly nocturnal of our 

 squirrels, rarely leaving its nest in the hollow tree until the 

 dusk of evening. For this reason comparatively few of them 

 are seen ; although their presence is made known, especially 

 on still autumn nights, by their oft-repeated squeaks. The 

 flaps of loose skin extending along the sides of the body from 

 the front to the hind paws, together with its extreme propor- 

 tionate lightness, and flat tail, enable this little rodent to per- 

 form its prodigious parachute-like leaps from the top of one 

 tree to the base of another at some distance. He will proceed 

 in this way in preference to leaping from bough to bough like 

 other squirrels. He is more or less carnivorous, and I have 

 known him to gnaw the edges of meat hung from the rafters 

 of an out-house. Like his relatives the true squirrels, the 

 Flying Squirrel, if unmolested, will take up his residence 

 near the habitation of man ; and a box that I have tacked 



