206 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
the night. It was quite busy all the evening 
gnawing out, clinging for this purpose and gnaw¬ 
ing at the upper edge of a sound oak barrel, 
and then dropping to rest from time to time. 
It had defaced the barrel considerably by morn¬ 
ing, and would probably have escaped, if I had 
not placed a piece of iron against the gnawed 
part. I had left in the barrel some bread, ap¬ 
ple, shagbarks, and cheese. It eat some of the 
apple and one shagbark, cutting it quite in two 
transversely. In the morning it was quiet, and 
squatted, somewhat curled up, amid the straw, 
with its tail passing under it and the end curved 
over its bead, very prettily, as if to shield it from 
the light and keep it warm. I always found it 
in this position by day when I raised the lid. 
March 23, 1855. Carried my flying squirrel 
back to the woods in my handkerchief. I placed 
it on the very stump I had taken it from. It 
immediately ran about a rod over the leaves 
and up a slender maple sapling about ten feet, 
then after a moment’s pause sprang off and 
skimmed downward toward a large maple nine 
feet distant, whose trunk it struck three or four 
feet from the ground. This it rapidly ascended 
on the opposite side from me, nearly thirty feet, 
and then clung to the main stem with its head 
downward, eyeing me. After two or three 
minutes’ pause, I saw that it was preparing 
