304 
THE STORY OF THE SQUIRREL. 
involuntarily to my shoulder to shoot the squirrel At the same moment 
I felt I was about to commit an act of sheer revenge, on a little courageous 
animal which deserved a better fate. As if aware of my hesitation, he nodded 
his head with rage, and stamped his fore paws on the tree; while in his 
chirruping there was an intonation of sound, which seemed addressed to 
an enemy for whom he had an utter contempt. What business, I could 
fancy he said, had I there, trespassing on his domain, and frightening his 
wife and little family for whom he was ready to lay down his life? There he 
would sit in spite of me,—and make my ears ring, with the sound of his 
war-whoop, till the spring of life should cease to bubble in his little heart. 
The red squirrel is the most common member of the family; next comes 
the gray squirrel, and this is followed by the fox-squirrel and the curious 
flying squirrel This latter is becoming scarce in the sections east of the 
Mississippi, where it was formerly very numerous. The skin of the flying 
squirrel is so curiously formed that they can not only drop from a height 
without injury, but can even skim for long distances through the air, passing, 
for example, from one tree to another perhaps forty or fifty yards away. I 
have often watched the creatures in their native haunts. At times one 
would be seen darting from the topmost branches of a tall oak, and with 
wide extended membranes and outspread tail gliding diagonally through 
the air, till it reached the foot of a tree about fifty yards off, when at the 
moment we expected to see it strike the earth, it suddenly turned upwards 
and alighted on the body of the tree. It would then run to the top and 
once more precipitate itself from the upper branches and sail back again 
to the tree it had just left. Crowds of these little creatures joined in these 
sportive gambols; there could not have been less than two hundred. Scores 
of them would leave each tree at the same moment, seeming to have no 
other object in view than to indulge a playful propensity. 
In India there are several species much larger than those in this country 
and with a relative greater flight. These measure from 20 to 24 inches in 
length and extended their parachutes are often 18 inches across. These 
are capable of a sustained flight of one hundred yards in an almost if not 
quite horizontal manner. 
It is most interesting to find that the tail, which is of such use to the 
water-inhabiting animals as a rudder by which they can steer their course, 
is equally of service to the flying squirrel, serving not only to balance the 
body when the animal is running along the branches, but also to direct and 
alter the course of the flight. And thus the tail, you see, serves a double 
