204 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
that his ribs are driven round upon his back. 
It is wonderful to see what a perfect piece of 
dovetailing his house is, the different plates of 
his shell fitting into each other by a thousand 
sharp teeth or serrations, and the scales always 
breaking joints over them so as to bind the 
whole firmly together, all parts of his abode 
variously interspliced and dovetailed. An ar¬ 
chitect might learn much from a faithful study 
of it. There are three large diamond-shaped 
openings down the middle of the sternum cov¬ 
ered only by the scales, through which perhaps 
he feels, he breasts the earth. His roof rests 
on four stout posts. This young one is very 
deep in proportion to its breadth. 
March 22, 1855. P. M. Fair Haven Pond 
via Conantum.On the steep hill-side 
south of the pond I observed a rotten and hol¬ 
low hemlock stump about two feet high, and six 
inches in diameter, and instinctively approached 
with my right hand ready to cover it. I found 
a flying squirrel in it, which, as my left hand 
covered a small hole at the bottom, ran directly 
into my right hand. It struggled and bit not a 
little, but my cotton gloves protected me, and I 
felt its teeth only once or twice. It also uttered 
three or four dry shrieks at first, something like 
Cr-r-r-ack cr-r-r-ack cr-r-r-ack . I rolled it up 
in my handkerchief, and holding the ends tight 
