THE SQUIRRELS. 



145 



a boundary between the cavity of the orbit 

 and the temporal fossa, without, however, 

 forming a complete ring round the former. 

 A collar-bone is always present, an indication 

 of the fact that the fore-limbs are capable 

 of varied applications; they can, in fact, be 

 used as arms and hands. The feet have 

 always four free toes 

 in front, five behind, 

 and these are armed 

 with strong, sharp, 

 curved claws; but 

 there is always at 

 least a rudiment of 

 the first digit more 

 or less well-develop- 

 ed. The squirrel 

 family is distributed 

 over the whole earth 

 with the exception of 

 Australia and Mada- 

 gascar. 



According to their 

 mode of life the 

 members of this 

 family may be con- 

 sidered as forming 

 two groups, the 

 climbing squirrels 

 and the crawling 



marmots. The typical members of the for- 

 mer group live chiefly on trees. 



Fig. 203.— The Common Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), page 1. 



found in the 



The Squirrels. 



The Flying- Squirrels (Pteromys) are dis- 

 tinguished by the parachute, formed of a 

 fold of skin stretched out between their limbs, 

 neck, and tail, as in the colugo or flying-cat. 

 By means of this hair-covered parachute they 

 can make extraordinary leaps. A bony spur 

 proceeding from the wrist serves as a support 

 for it. In other respects they are true 

 squirrels, with round heads, elegant limbs, 

 and a tail which is in some cases round and 

 bushy like that of a fox, sometimes set with 

 two lines of hair as in the ordinary squirrels. 



Vol. II. 



The small ears are not tufted. In habits they 

 are nocturnal. During the day they sleep in 

 holes in the trees, where they build warm 

 nests for themselves. In the evening they 

 awake and go out in search of food, not only 

 collecting fruits, nuts, and berries of all sorts, 

 but also catching insects and birds. Like 



our squirrels, too, 

 they are unsparing 

 plunderers of nests, 

 and know well how 

 to suck out the con- 

 tents of the eggs, 

 which they hold 

 gracefully in their 

 fore-paws. Like all 

 nocturnal animals 

 they are, when kept 

 in captivity, sleepy 

 and inactive by day, 

 and, when teased, 

 ill-tempered, but at 

 night extremely 

 lively and agile. 

 The larger species 

 are rather vicious, 

 and their sharp nar- 

 row incisors inflict 

 deep wounds. The 

 flying -squirrels are 

 Indies, on the Sunda 

 Islands, and in the northern part of both 

 hemispheres. A- markedly divergent genus 

 (Anomalurus), with a dentition allied to that 

 of the porcupine and a tail covered with 

 scales at the base, inhabits the west coast of 

 Africa. The largest of the flying-squirrels, 

 the Brown Flying-Squirrel, the Taguan of the 

 Malays, the Oral of the Coles {Pt. petauristd), 

 fig. 202, attains the size of a cat, while the 

 smallest, the Assapan of the red-skins {Pt. 

 volucelld) has a body less than 6 inches in 

 length with a tail of about 4 inches. 



The True Squirrels (Sciurus) form a genus 

 extraordinarily rich in species, found wherever 

 woods exist in the parts of the earth above 



61 



East 



