The Rodents, or Gnawing Animals 



149 



is usually engaged for several days, spending 

 an hour in the morning hard at work. The 

 noise they make in cutting the sticks and 

 carrying material is heard at some distance." 

 In winter they reside entirely in tlie holes 

 of trees, where their young are in most 

 cases liorn. Green corn and young wheat 

 suffered greatly from ttieir depredations, and 

 a wliolesale war of destruction used to be 

 waged against them everywhere. In Penn- 

 sylvania an old law offered threepence a 

 head from the })uljlic treasury for evei-y 

 squirrel destroyed, and in 1749 the enormous 

 sum of £8,000 was paid out of the public 

 funds for this purpose. In those days vast 

 migrations of these squirrels used to take 

 place, exciting not only the wonder liut the 

 fear of tlie old settlers. In the Fhy North- 

 west multitudes of squirrels used to congre- 

 gate in different districts, forming scattered 

 bands, which all moved in an easterly direc- 

 tion, gathering into larger bodies as they 

 went. Neither mountains nor rivers stopped 



them. On they came, a devouring army, laying waste the corn- and wlieat- fields, until guns, 



cats, hawks, foxes, and owls destroyed them. 



Plioto Iji jr. p. Sando] 



[Jtccfent's Park. 



EED-POOTED Q-KOUND-SQITIItEEL. 



This species lias some of the cliaracteristics of the tree-squinels, anion; 

 them the bushy tail. 



The Flying-squikrels. 



One of the finest squirrels is the Taguan, a large squirrel of India, Ceylon, and the 

 Malacca forests. It is a "flying-squirrel," with a body 2 feet long, and a liushy tail 

 of the same length. Being nocturnal, it is not often seen ; but when it leaps it unfolds 

 a flap of skin on either side, which is stretched (like a sail) when the fore and hind 

 limbs are extended in the act of leaping ; it then forms a pjarachute. The colour of 

 this squirrel is grey, brown, and pale chc-stnut. There are a number of different flying- 

 squirrels in China, Formosa, and Japan, and in the forests of Central America. One small 

 flying-squirrel, the Polatouche, is found in North-east Eussia and Siberia. It flies from 

 tree to tree with immense bounds, 

 assisted by the " floats " on its sides. 

 Though only 6 inches long, it can 

 cover distances of 30 feet and more 

 without difficulty. Wherever there 

 are birch forests this little squirrel 

 is found. One nearly as small is 

 a native of the Southern States of 

 Anrerica, ranging as far south as Guate- 

 mala. 



In Africa, south of the Sahara, 

 the place of the Oriental flying- 

 squirrel is taken by a separate family. 

 They have a different arrangement of 

 the parachute from that of the flying- 

 squirrels of India. This wide fold of 

 skin is supported in the Asiatic 



Fholo Ijt, I}r. R. ir. tihvfddl] 



BLiCK FOX-SQUIEEEL. 

 The far of this species is as valnahle as that uf tlie grey squirrel. 



[ l\'asIilngto'ih. 



