COMMON FLYING SQUIRREL. 151 



perior grain. They are of a wild nature, and are 

 by no means easily reconciled to a state of capti- 

 vity ; continuing timid, and shewing no symptoms 

 of attachment to their owners. They are taken 

 merely on account of their skins, which, though 

 forming but a slight or ordinary fur^ have a very 

 pleasing appearance when properly disposed, and 

 are said to be chiefly sold to the Chinese. It has 

 been doubted whether those found in America be 

 really of the same species with the European or 

 Asiatic kind ; but the differences are by no means 

 such as to justify a specific distinction ; consist- 

 ing merely in a very trifling variation of size and 

 colours. 



Flying Squirrels, 



COMMON FLYING SQUIRREL. 



Sciums Volans. S. canus, stibtm albus, hypochoiidriis dilatatis^ 



Cauda rotundata. 

 Pale-grey Squirrel, white beneath, with the side-skin dilated 



into a flying membrane. 

 Sciurus hypochondms prolixis volitans, cauda rotundata, Lin, 



Syst. Nat. Gmel. p. 154. 

 Sciurus volans. Klein, act. angl. 1^33. 

 Mus Ponticus, &c. Gesn. Quadr. 743. 

 European Flying Squirrel. Pennant Quadr, p. 155. 



This highly elegant animal is the only Flying 

 Squirrel yet discovered in Europe, where it is ex- 

 tremely rare, being found chiefly in the most 

 northern regions, as in Finland, Lapland, 8cc, It 



