eet away, is but an exaggeration, due to the membrane connecting
the fore and hind legs, of what all squirrels practice continually. I
have seen a red squirrel land lightly after jumping from an enormous
height, and run away as if nothing unusual had happened. But though I
have watched them often, I have never seen a squirrel do this except
when compelled to do so. When chased by a weasel or a marten, or when
the axe beats against the trunk below--either because the vibration
hurts their feet, or else they fear the tree is being cut down--they
use the strange gift to save their lives. But I fancy it is a breathless
experience, and they never try it for fun, though I have seen them do
all sorts of risky stumps in leaping from branch to branch.

It is a curious fact that, though a squirrel leaps from a great height
without hesitation, it is practically impossible to make him take a jump
of a few feet to the ground. Probably the upward rush of air, caused by
falling a long distance, is necessary to flatten the body enough to make
him land lightly.

It would be interesting to know whether the raccoon also, a large,
heavy animal, has the same way of breaking his fall when he jumps from a
height. One bright moonlight night, when I ran ahead of the dogs, I saw
a big coon leap from a tree to the ground, a distance of some thirty
or forty feet. The dogs had treed him in an evergreen, and he left them
howling below while he stole silently from branch to branch until a good
distance away, when to save time he leaped to the ground. He struck with
a heavy thump, but ran on uninjured as swiftly as before, and gave the
dogs a long run before they treed him again.

The sole of a coon's foot is padded thick with fat and gristle, so that
it must feel like landing on springs when he jumps; but I suspect that
he also knows the squirrel trick of flattening his body and tail against
the air so as to fall lightly.

The chipmunk seems to be the only one of the squirrel family in whom
this gift is wanting. Possibly he has it also, if the need ever comes.
I fancy, however, that he would fare badly if compelled to jump from a
spruce top, for his body is heavy and his tail small from long living
on the ground; all of which seems to indicate that the tree-squirrel's
bushy tail is given him, not for ornament, but to aid his passage
from branch to branch, and to break his fall when he comes down from a
height.

By way of contrast with Meeko, y