OF THE UNITED STATES 403 



in the same plane with the body, while the latter is flattened out, 

 the legs are extended, and the lateral dermal sheets put upon the 

 stretch. Forty or fifty yards are sometimes thus passed at one 

 flying leap, the trajectory being a gentle curve — for its first two- 

 thirds downward, to terminate upon an upward inclination as 

 the animal makes a graceful landing upon the place for which it 

 had started. This is usually upon the trunk of another tree, or, if 

 convenient, one of the main branches. As they pass through the 

 air the flight is even, fairly swift, and very remarkable, the ani- 

 mals appearing — as they pass overhead or descend near you — 

 like little square pieces of white pasteboard sailing through the 

 air, much after the fashion that certain tricksters flip playing 

 cards for extraordinary distances, the curves described being 

 quite similar. 



Flying squirrels evidently appear to enjoy these aerial ex- 

 ploits, for they will pass to and fro between the same two trees 

 a number of times in succession, running up to the top of one, to 

 leap and sail over to the other, which in turn is ascended only to 

 fly back to the one they had just quit. When traveling in num- 

 bers through the forests, however, these flights get them over the 

 territory traversed in very short order, a mile or more being made 

 in hardly any time at all. 



Flying squirrels have but little to dread from man; but that 

 they are preyed upon by owls, weasels, and a few other animals 

 there is no room for doubt; and probably they are also frequently 

 destroyed through other agencies, or else they would so vastly 

 increase that their number would soon be immense, and their 

 existence in many localities be made far more evident. 



A curious instance is recorded by a popular writer at hand, 

 " in which a brood of young squirrels of this species were kept in 

 confinement for some months. The mother suckled her young 

 ones by clinging with her forefeet to the perch of the cage, let- 

 ting her body hang down, while the little ones stood on their 

 hind legs and took their meal from her breast. This brood was 

 procured by some laborers, who, in clearing a wood by setting it 

 on fire, saw the mother carry them one by one from the burning 

 tree to a place of safety. When they took her, she was found to 

 be singed. This good and devoted mother had three of her young 

 ones killed by the rats, which got into the cage at night, and she 

 herself had one of her thighs broken and a part of her flesh eaten 

 from her body to the bone, yet she was found in the morning 

 clinging to her little ones and trying to nurse them! " 



