The nests and nest-building behavior of the Japanese giant flying squirrel, Petaurista leucogenys, were investigated at shrine groves, afforested areas and villages in the Kyushu and Kanto districts during 1972-1982, together with some observation of the nest-building behavior in captivity. Thte results obtained are summarized as follows. 1. The flying squirrel always preferred tree follows to places on branches as the nesting site. A few branch nests were found only in cases which suitable, natural tree hollows were scarce. 2. Density of the nests was highest at shrine groves and lowest at afforested areas. Presence of old and big trees seemed to be advantageous for the animal to get suitable tree hollows. 3. The attic and tree hollow nests were common also in and around villages, thus the animal seemed to be nt affected so much by human activities. 4. This animal showed a preference to tree hollows as the nesting site, whose entrances are 8-20 cm in diameter, and was unconcerned about the bulk and ground height of the hollows. The tree holow nests were distributed all over woodlands without distinction of the center and margin. 5. This animal had the nest-building behavior involving two independent devices to utilize tree hollows as the nests, i. e. gnawing small hollow entrances and carrying nest materials into the nests. 6. Frequency of occurrence of the nest-building behavior in Petaurista leucogenys was lower than in Callosciurus caniceps and Sciurus carolinensis. This may be caused by the facts that the tree hollow nests rarely break and a small amount of the nest material is enough for this animal. 7. This animal had a strong preference to the bark of the Japanese cedar, Cryptomeria japonica, as the nset materials. The nest-building behavior was divided into the following units-peeling, chewing, shredding, folding and bundling of the materials. 8. Some differences in nest material treatment were found between Petaurista leucogenys. Pteromys momonga and Tamias sibiricus.
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