136 THE FLYING SQUIRREL. 
sets with an agility and daring that would excite the envy of the 
most skilful acrobat. They always turn backward, going com- 
pletely over and alighting almost exactly upon the spot from which 
they started. Now they run a few steps before going over, and now 
stop and turn round and round as if a spit ran through the centre 
of the body on which it turned. These gyrations are often ex- 
tremely ludicrous, especially, when turning side by side, they seem 
to be racing. Their heads appear to be wholly ignorant of dizziness 
or other unpleasant sensations that come from an inverted position, 
for it never makes much difference with them whether the head is 
up or down, sometimes taking food hanging head down, and almost 
always drinking in this position; as they might, when wild, drink 
from a stream while clinging to the end of an overhanging branch, 
though it is singular that they should so invariably choose this 
position, as they drink by lapping up the water as a cat would. 
They are so tame that they have very little idea of running away, 
not always being ready to leave the cage when it is opened to allow 
them todo so. They are often allowed to run about the room in 
which they are kept and they are quite fond of running over the 
furniture, leaping into chairs and off the backs, running over pict- 
ure cords and the like, being better pleased as they climb higher, 
and when as high as they can get, off they “fly” to the farthest 
corner of the room. It is hardly necessary to say that this so 
called “ flying ” is in no sense true flight. The extension of skin 
between the front and hind limbs is not capable of motion like 
that of a wing of a bird, nor can it raise the body from any sur- 
face, but it is simply a support, a parachute, so that the animal 
can leap from a high position and by a gradual descent reach the 
ground. So efficient is this support that in the woods these little 
animals can sail down from a high tree to a bush several hundreds 
of feet away. They always choose a bush or branch upon which 
to stop if possible, and even in a room, when descending from a 
bookcase, they always alight, if possible, on a chair or a person’s 
_ shoulder rather than upon the floor. Not only when descending 
but when jumping up does the parachute assist them, and if they 
are liable to fall they partly extend it. When fully expanded it 
makes the outline of the body about square, a little longer than 
broad, but when folded along the side it is not noticeable, as it is 
Covered with fur of the same color as the body, wh'te below and 
gray above, with a dark line slang the edge, and like all the fur of 
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