FLYING SQUIRREL, skw(7errd or skwiera A squirrel which has a fold of the skin of the flanks (a 'parachute') extended between the for and hind legs. and partly supported by bony proc esses of the feet, by means of which it is enabled to take extraordinary leaps, gliding for a great distance through the air. The distichous tail also aids to support it in the air, as well as 10 direct its motion. There are two genera, Pteromys and Schiropterus. The former con tains large species characteristic of the Indian and East Indian region; the latter contains the smaller species of North America, Asia, and Europe. The European species (Sciuroptcrus rolans) is about the size of a rat, grayish ash color above, white below, the tail 11111f length of the body; it lives solitary in the forests. Its fur is of little value, but skins are sometimes mixed with those of the gray squirrel, to impose on the purchaser. The most common North American species (Sciaropteras rola cella), common from the thilf of Mexico to Upper Canada, is fully live inches long, plus a tail equally long. It is brownish-gray above, white beneath, and a black line surrounds the orbit of each eye. In the Yukon region of Alaska this species is replaced by a much larger one (Scivropterus Yukonensis), but it seems to be a very rare animal.
All the flying squirrels inhabit woods, and the night is their time for activity. They feed not only on nuts and young shoots of trees, hut also are said to kill and eat small birds, and to rob birds' nests. They are easy of domestication, but
are apt to bite, and do mischief to furniture and hangings, especially by ("flawing woolen stuffs to pieces as material for their nests. These are naturally placed in sonic cranny of a hollow tree, preferably a deserted woodpecker's hole, but may be placed within a house. In gliding from tree to tree the flying squirrel descends obliquely, and with very rapid motion, until near the tree which it seeks to reach, when it wheels upward, and alights on the trunk. Fifty or sixty feet is the ordinary length of its flight. See SQUIRREL, and the authorities mentioned there under; and Plate of SQUIRRELS.
The name is also applied in Australia to flying phalangers (q.v.), and in Africa to the scale tailed squirrels of the family Anomalurile. These little creatures, which belong in West and Central Africa, much resemble American flying squirrels in appearance and habits, but the tail is more slender, and has on its inferior surface and margins, near the root, a series of large imbricated scales, that are of service in climbing; the parachute is distended and supported by a stiff cartilaginous process from the olecranon. Consult Proceedings Zoological 8ociety of Lon don (London. 1874-75).