i oo 
MAMMALIA. 
would enable them to capture the most wary with ease. Moreover 
the eagerness and avidity with which they seize and feast upon a 
dead bird placed within reach would indicate that they were not 
strangers to such a repast.* In conhnement they will eat bird’s 
eggs, not discarding the shells. 
A more gentle, docile, and graceful animal than the Flying Squirrel 
does not exist, and though without anything striking in the way of 
color or markings, it is nevertheless one of the most beautiful of our 
mammals. The dense silky fur of an ashen-brown above and creamy 
white beneath, rivalling that of the chinchilla in glossy softness, and 
the large, prominent, and expressive eyes, together with its pretty 
ways, render it an attractive and justly esteemed pet. 
Prof. F. H. King mentions the interesting circumstance that 
when an assortment of nuts was placed within reach of a Flying 
Squirrel which he had in confinement, it carried off all the acorns 
and hazel-nuts, but did not touch any of the others. These two 
kinds of nuts were the only ones that grew in the immediate 
neighborhood of the place where this squirrel was captured, but it 
was taken so young that it could never have seen any nuts prior 
to its confinement. Hence the case seems clearly one of inherited 
habit. f 
Whether, in the region under consideration, this variety of the 
Flying Squirrel hibernates, I am unable to state with positiveness, 
though strongly of opinion that it does. It certainly remains in 
its nest during the severer weather of our winters. 
Next to the bats, it is the most strictly nocturnal of our mammals, 
very rarely being seen abroad till after nightfall. He who quietly 
wanders through our groves and forests during the warm, still 
* Prof. F. H. King, in his admirable and comprehensive treatise upon the Economic Relations 
of Wisconsin Birds, says : “ In the spring of 1879, I placed the young of the Chipping Sparrow in 
the cage with a young pet flying squirrel ( Sciuropterus volucella). The bird was seized with energy 
and killed but not eaten.” (Geology of Wisconsin, Vol. I, 1883, p. 444.) The reason the bird was 
not eaten is hard to explain unless the squirrel was surfeited with food. 
f Mr. E. P. Bicknell suggests that the squirrel may have selected the acorns and hazel-nuts 
because they were thinner-shelled than the others. 
