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Star Lore Sciurus Volans The Flying Squirrel

Sciurus Volans is a now obsolete constellation designed in 1810 by William Croswell.

In 1810, Boston cartographer William Croswell created a large star map called Mercator Map of the Starry Heavens. The map showed all the classical constellations and the new southern hemisphere constellations created by Dutch navigators Keyser and de Houtman. In addition, Croswell tried to put his own designs in the stars with Sciurus Volans in the northern and Marmor Sculptile in the southern hemisphere. Sciurus Volans represents a flying_squirrel, a group of squirrels native to North and Central America and to Northern Europe that are able to glide from one tree to another using a furry, parachute-like membrane that stretches from wrist to ankle. For its creation, Croswell used the stars used almost 200 years earlyer by Petrus Plancius in the design of Camelopardalis. Croswell's map of 1810 was the only map to ever show his two creations. Source: John C. Barentine: Uncharted Constellations

Sciurus Volans on Croswell's Mercator map of the starry heavens Sources: Library of Congress

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