242 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



less well acquainted with mammals, so far as their exteriors 

 are concerned, than he is at the present day. And 

 although he had a suspicion that the skin in question 

 was peculiar, no steps were taken to ascertain whether 

 this was really the case. One day, however, in 1888, 

 when paying a visit to the Natural History Museum, he 

 was shown a living flying-squirrel from Astor, remarkable 

 for its dark colour and bushy tail, which was pronounced 

 to represent a then unknown species. A brief inspection 

 was sufficient to render it evident that the skin serving as 

 a perambulator-rug belonged to the same species as the 

 living animal, although a much larger and finer individual. 

 It was soon after presented to the Museum, and described, 

 in conjunction with the complete specimen, not only as 

 the type of a new species, but of a new genus, under the 

 title of Eupetaurus cinereus. Owing to the splendid de- 

 velopment of the tail in the flat skin, the figure of which 

 a reproduction is given in the plate was partly drawn 

 from that specimen. 



The main reason for making the woolly flying-squirrel 

 (as, from the nature of its coat, it has been called) the 

 type of a genus by itself is afforded by the characters of 

 its cheek-teeth, which differ from those of other members 

 of the group by their tall crowns and imperfectly developed 

 roots. This character indicates greater specialisation than 

 the ordinary flying-squirrels. Unfortunately little or 

 nothing is known as to the life-history of this splendid 

 representative of the flying-squirrels, but there is some 

 reason to believe that it dwells, at least to a certain extent, 

 among rocks rather than in trees. 



Although they do not properly come within the scope 

 of the present article, a few words may be said with 

 regard to the flying-phalangers (the flying-squirrels of the 



