SC I U RO PT E R US VOLUCELLA IIUDSONIUS. 
109 
owl should lurk hard by, glides silently to a neighboring tree, and 
starts forthwith upon his nightly tour in quest of food and sport. 
Prompted either by hunger or curiosity, or by a combination of the 
two, he examines every unusual object with scrupulous care, and as 
one result is always getting into traps set for valuable fur — and this 
whether they are baited with mammal, bird, or fish. Indeed, the 
nature of the bait seems to be a matter of the most trivial con- 
sequence, as it often consists of red and Flying Squirrels that have 
previously been taken in the trap. Even in this case another Flying 
Squirrel is as likely to be the next thing caught as any animal in the 
Wilderness. Hence it happens that the trapper comes to look upon 
him as an unmitigated nuisance. 
These handsome Squirrels are very fond of beechnuts, and during 
“nut years’’ feed largely upon them. They are thirsty creatures 
and in the early spring, when certain of the woodsmen are engaged 
in making maple sugar, many are found dead in the sap buckets — 
drowned in their efforts to obtain the sweet fluid. 
They breed about a month later than their smaller relative. 
June 1 8th, 1883, Dr. A. K. Fisher and the writer found the nest of a 
Northern Flying Squirrel at West Pond, near Big Moose Lake. It 
was in the last year’s nest ot a three-toed woodpecker ( Picoidcs 
arcticus ) in a tamarack [Lari . r Americana ) and the entrance hole 
faced the east, about ten feet above the ground. On cutting down 
the tree the nest was found to contain three nursing young, not yet 
one-third grown ; they were estimated to be about a month old. 
They were fed on condensed milk diluted with water until we left 
the woods, and afterwards on fresh milk and vegetables. One of 
them grew very rapidly, attaining nearly two-thirds the size of its 
parent by the 10th of July, when it was accidentally killed. They all 
were perfectly tame and acted much like the young of the common 
Flying Squirrel [S. volucella ) already described. 
In searching the scanty literature relating to this animal, which has 
not previously been recorded from the State of New York, I have 
