52 ■ Booth, A Flying Phalanger. [v^!^xxxvi. 



the platter clean. We tempted him with various other refec- 

 tion, animal and vegetable. Most he would have nought to do 

 with ; now and again he would taste a little fruit, or animals 

 other than cockroaches and " milHes," but they were all side- 

 lines with him. His one stock and staple diet was the original 

 milk-soaked bread and sugar, or perhaps we should say sugar 

 and milk-soaked bread, for, though he ate the bread and drank 

 some of the milk, it was the sugar, plenty and thick, that he 

 seemed to regard as the essential. 



The small size and perfect build, the curious " wings " and 

 squirrel-like hands, so small and cold and naked, the rich, deep 

 fur and dehcate tissue-paper-thick ears, the spherical, pro- 

 minent, bead-like eyes, the tiny pointed mouth and dainty little 

 tongue, with his friendly but independent character, made him 

 a universally admired pet. He was a cleanly animal, and 

 had no noticeable parasites. 



I do not know what toll of years would make a breviceps 

 feel aged. But one evening, after some cold, wet weather, 

 " Pet Peter " failed to answer to the call for supper, but took 

 it readily enough when offered to him in his nest. He seemed 

 to be lethargic, and the lethargy increased day by day, and his 

 limbs became stiffer. One day his immediate caretaker 

 reported that he seemed to be ill — had caught a cold, or got 

 some rheumatism. He was brought indoors and given an 

 extra good nest, and was fed attentively. But, though his 

 appetite failed but little, his Hmbs continued to get stiffer, and 

 on the 7th June last year his corpus was transferred to the 

 National Museum. 



We had brought him down from Croydon on the i6th 

 November, 1912. He had then been about four months in 

 captivity, making his age nearly six years, in addition to 

 whatever time he had hved in his native bush. 



" Science and Industry." — ^The first number (May, 1919) 

 of this new publication, which is the official journal of the Com- 

 monwealth Institute of Science and Industry, is to hand. Its 

 aims, as set out in the " Foreword," are good, and we trust in 

 due time will become accompHshed facts. Many diverse subjects 

 are dealt with. In an article, which shows the effect of environ- 

 ment on plants, Dr. J. B. Clelland deals with the terrible " prickly 

 pear " pest in Queensland and northern New South Wales, the 

 illustrations showing the widespread effects of the scourge. 

 Fortunately Victoria is free from this plant as a pest, but the 

 planting of sweetbriar and African boxthorn as hedge plants in 

 this State should be absolutely prohibited, if we are to remain 

 free from a similar menace. The journal is to be published 

 monthly, at one shilHng per copy. 



