OUSCUS ORIENTALIS. 95 



more or less distinctly in some albinos. The color of the 

 remaining parts of head and back varies from dirty 

 yellow to reddish , reddish brown and brown , sometimes 

 closely spotted or with a few spots, mostly destitute of 

 spots ; the uuderparts are pure white , yellow or reddish. 

 They rarely attain the large size of Cuscus ursinus and 

 Cuscus maculatus; the females are generally smaller than 

 the males ^) , contrasting with what is rule in the speci- 

 mens of Cuscus maculatus. 



The albinos of this species long time have puzzled the 

 naturalists. So Temminck related; » la robe des males, même 

 dans le premier age, est d'un blanc parfait sur toutes les 

 parties; les adultes out une teinte plus jaunatre, et les 

 jeunes sont d'un blanc de lait." Waterhouse was of exactly 

 the same opinion. Schlegel wrote in 1857: »the adult ma- 

 les are perfectly white". In 1858 Gray described the male 

 white , the female pale reddish-brown , with a darker lon- 

 gitudinal streak. The same author wrote (P. Z. S. L. 1860): 

 » Cuscus ornatus is most like Cuscus orientalis, but in that 

 animal the male is pure white." In the following year 

 however Gray asked: »can the white males be an albino 

 variety J and confined to the male sexe?" Schlegel^) en- 

 deavouring to solve the question stated: » young and adult 

 females are of a brownish color: the adult males however 

 generally grow pure white : whereas this is a rule in the 

 individuals from Ceram and Amboina , the specimens from 

 other localities present several differences in color and are 

 more or less spotted, the males as well as the females." 



At present we know that the white individuals are al- 

 binos and that they are not restricted to Ceram and Am- 

 boina, but independently from locality as we have albinos 

 from Ceram , Amboina , Boeroe , Soela-bessie and Goram , 

 Gray cited albinos from Ceram , Amboina , Waigeou , New- 



1) The contrary of what has been observed by Waterhouse: see his Marsu- 

 piata. I. p. 280. 



2) l)e Dierentuin Natura Artis Magistra te Amsterdam. 1872. p. 165. 



Notes frora the Leyderx ^Museum, Vol. "VII. 



