GAY TROPICAL SQUIRRELS 
with which I am familiar, crawls out to the small end of a branch about 
which it curls and remains motionless. When in this position it is exceed- 
ingly difficult to see, though considerably larger than our eastern gray 
squirrel; and even the white under side of the bushy tail is so coiled about 
the body as to aid in deceiving the 
observer. The long and handsome ear- 
tufts are shed in the spring, and the 
new ones do not attain their full growth 
until the early part of winter; hence 
specimens taken in summer have naked, 
or nearly naked, ears.” 
Mexico and Central America 
have several species of their own, 
mostly brightly colored — none 
more so than the gray-backed, 
red-bellied one common in _ the 
mountains of eastern Mexico. 
Hornaday thinks, however, that 
the most attractive squirrel in the 
world is Prevost’s of the Malay a 
Peninsula, whose “colors form a [eee AE ee 
beautiful pattern of gray, brown, Theor aoe 
black, white, and buff.” Another ; 
of very striking coloration, — above bright chestnut brown with 
sides and abdomen yellow, — and the largest of its race, is the 
Malabar squirrel, inhabiting the hills of southern India. The 
common squirrel of England (and eastward to Japan) is nearly 
like our red squirrel in appearance with the important differ- 
ence that its ears are heightened by a long fringe and pencil 
tip of stiff hairs. 
The flying-squirrels form an allied arboreal group, in which 
the furry hide is extended in a loose flap or cloak to the feet, 
and, in various Oriental species, also from the wrists to the 
neck, and from the ankles to the base of the tail. 
This expansion forms a sort of parachute, or ‘“‘patagium,” 
445 
