306 
THE STORY OF THE SQUIRREL . 
purpose, and is just as useful when its owner is in the air as it is when he is 
gamboling among the boughs of his leafy home. 4 
Like ordinary squirrels, these animals subsist mainly on nuts, seeds and 
buds, but the American species also eats beetles, and probably other insects, 
and may be taken in traps baited with meat. While in confinement it will 
but seldom refuse flesh. The American flying squirrels construct nests in 
the hollow trees they haunt, and in the cold winters of the Adirondack region 
THE SQUIRREL AND ITS HABITS. 
near New York they retire to these nests, and probably hibernate. The 
same habits will doubtless hold good for those inhabiting Kashmir and 
Afghanistan, but those inhabiting India proper and the warm Malayan 
region remain active at all seasons. 
In the daytime these squirrels remain concealed in hollow trees, and only 
issue forth at sunset in quest of food 
