5© Booth, A Flying Phalanger. [voTx'xxvi 



were astonishing. Not only did mantlepieces, high shelves, 

 picture frames, and even the picture-rail present no more 

 difficulty than floor or table, but picture or blind cords formed 

 perfect surfaces for all the manoeuvres of advance, sudden 

 retreat, and active gyration. Human beings neither attracted 

 nor repelled. He had no fear of them ; if they happened in 

 his way he ran over them. For him they simply were not. 

 Come for calling? No. Easy to catch? -Not much; but if 

 caught it was no trouble at all to " Pet Peter." 



When picked up in the evening, or approached in his nest 

 in the day-time, he had no objection to being handled. You 

 could stroke him, curl his tail round your finger, examine his 

 graceful little paws, and he was neither nervous nor com- 

 plaining ; but on one point he was sensitive — very. Try to 

 examine, spread out, or display his " wings," and " Pet Peter " 

 manifested at once the greatest objection. His voice, which 

 was usually a subdued hiss, became a very Liliputian snarl, 

 while he wriggled, backed, and twisted in his most vigorous 

 manner to avoid the desecration. 



" Pet Peter " had another characteristic : he was a king of 

 malingerers. To " sham dead " is not uncommon with animals ; 

 but " Pet Peter " to all intents and purposes was dead. Pity 

 and interest and thoughts of the museum were the only things 

 that prevented his burial the first time he treated us to an 

 exhibition of his powers in this direction. Limp, eyes staring, 

 and breathless, he exhibited no " response to stimuli," lying 

 flaccid in the hands or on the table for a period of perhaps five 

 or ten minutes ; then, with scarcely a sigh of recovery, he 

 would dart to a far corner and continue the romps of the 

 evening. This sham death, which occurred some four or five 

 times, seemed sometimes to be brought on by apparent fright 

 of a cat or dog, but at others without any assignable cause — 

 just a breathing spell in his activities ; otherwise, during waking 

 hours, " Pet Peter " took no rest. 



He played hide-and-seek well. He was not always ready 

 to be put away into his own apartment when the family were 

 retiring — in fact, it was not always easy to find him, and even 

 finding was not always getting, and so he was often left till the 

 morning. Only once did we fail to get him, and then after an 

 absence of a week he composedly turned up in one of the upper 

 bedrooms ; otherwise we never failed to find him eventually, 

 but we had many a long search, and discovered him in strange 

 places. A deep, narrow-necked vase in the centre of the top 

 shelf of an overmantel hid him for a long time the first time 

 he made use of it — I said first time, but I don't think there 

 ever was a second. I am sure there was no third, for " Pet 

 Peter " had no fancy for any particular cranny ; but, though 



