170 FLYING SQUIRREL.

their most distinguishing peculiarity.”

Catesby writes of them, “They will dart four score
yards from one tree to another. They cannot rise in
their course, nor keep in a horizontal line, but descend
gradually, so that in proportion to the distance of the
tree they mean to dart to, so much the higher they
mount on the tree they are about to leave, that they
may reach some part, even the lowest of the distant
tree, rather than fall to the ground, which exposes them
to peril; but having once recovered the trunk of a tree,
no animal seems nimble enough to take them.”

With regard to their habits, these animals, during the
day, hide and sleep in the hollows of trees, and unless
disturbed from these retreats, are seldom seen; but in
the night-time they come forth to feed in small com-
panies of ten or a dozen, every one of them lively and
active in all their movements.

Their food consists, like that of other squirrels, of
nuts, acorns, and tender shoots of trees and plants.
They are easily tamed; but it is a pity to deprive
these or any other active wild animals of their liberty,
without the full exercise of which they cannot possibly
be happy.