The flying species are also distinguished from ordinary flyingsquirrels by the circumstance that the additional bone serving for the support of the fore part of the flying-membrane rises Pigmy African Flying-Squirrel (Idiurus zenkeri).
In Australia and Papua the name flying-squirrel is applied to such marsupials as are provided with parachutes; animals which naturalists prefer to designate flying-phalangers (see MARSUPIALIA).
The Indian flying-squirrel (P. oral) leaps with its parachute extended from the higher branches of a tree, and descends first directly and then more and more obliquely, until the flight, gradually becoming slower, assumes a horizontal direction, and finally terminates in an ascent to the branch or trunk of the tree to which it was directed.
In Africa the name of flying-squirrel is applied to the members of a very different family of rodents, the Anomaluridae, which are provided with a parachute.
The Hudsonian zone covers the upper slopes of the higher mountains of New England, New York and North Carolina and larger areas on the elevated slopes of the Rocky and Cascade Mountains; and on the western mountains it is the home of the mountain goat, mountain sheep, Alpine flying-squirrel, nutcracker, evening grosbeak and Townsends solitaire.
