184 ACCOUNT OF A SPECIES OF PHALANGI8TA. 



in his black far, and tliey quite confirm my opinion. They 

 appeared gentle and quiet creatures ; and were feeding on cabbage, 

 carrots, and soaked bread ; they gnawed off largish pieces of these 

 substances, and holding them in their fore-feet, were leisurely 

 eating them after the manner of squirrels. They had good beds 

 of straw in their cages, and the keeper told me they must be kept 

 warm in the winter. 



Mr. Waterhouse, in his "Natural History of 3Iammalia,''^ vol. 

 i.,p. 291, gives the lengths of P. fuliginosa, as 22 inches from the 

 nose to the base of the tail, and of the tail 14inches=36 inches 

 in all ; and of another, as 18 inches 6 lines, and 12 inches, or 30 

 inches 6 lines altogether; and this last, he says, was a light-gray^ 

 and entirely corresponded in colour with P. vulpina. He further 

 mentions other individuals as being intermediate in their colouring 

 between the sooty, and the gray specimens. It is consequently 

 evident that the P. faliginosa is a very variable species, much influ- 

 enced by age, and perhaps by food and temperature. Indeed, Mr, 

 Waterhouse (p. 293) believes that P. vulpina and P. Juliginosa 

 are specifically identical ; although I understand Mr. Gould 

 considers them as distinct. 



One of the earliest descriptions of the former animal, written 

 by the celebrated John Hunter, is in the Appendix to White's 

 " Journal of a voyage to New South Wales," p. 278 (Lond., 1790), 

 where the native name of ^Vlla Tapoau Roo is given, and it is 

 accompanied with a neatly coloured-etching ; but the figure in- 

 tended for the same species, p, 150 in " Phillip's Voyage to 

 Botany Bay," published the year before, is extremely bad. 



