﻿THE TRUE PHALANGERS. 89 



while the fur is longer and thicker; the general colour is rufous 

 grey or deep umber-brown, and the ears have little or no 

 white behind. The thick and bushy tail is almost entirely 

 black. Length of head and body about 23 inches ; of tail 15 

 inches. 



Hal)its. — The Common Phalanger, which may be compared 

 in size with an ordinary Domestic Cat, is an inhabitant of the 

 tallest trees of the Australian and Tasmanian forests, preferring 

 gum-trees to all others, and selecting for its habitation those 

 with a hollow trunk or arms, in the recesses of which it can 

 pass the day securely wrapt in slumber. At night the Pha- 

 langer leaves its lair to wander stealthily among the branches, 

 upon the buds, fruits, and leaves of which it feeds. Occasion- 

 ally these animals descend to the ground, perhaps in search of 

 water ; and throughout these arboreal rambles they are much 

 assisted in-chmbing by their highly prehensile tail, which is 

 alone amply sufficient to support the weight of the body. In- 

 deed, if a dying Opossum, in falling from the bough on which 

 it is sitting, happens to catch its tail round another branch, it 

 will die in that position, and there hang. Phalangers are more 

 numerous in some localities than in others, and generally fre- 

 quent the neighbourhood of water. In such favoured situations 

 one or more of these animals will certainly be found, although 

 it requires a practised eye to detect their presence in the shades 

 of evening or by moonlight. The eye must then scan each 

 bough with the moon behind it, when the upright ears of the 

 Phalanger will often betray its presence as it lies stretched along 

 the branch, or partially concealed in a cleft. During the pair- 

 ing season, and less commonly at other times of the year, the 

 Phalanger utters a loud chattering scream, which may be heard 

 for a considerable distance through the silent forest. Breeding 

 but once in the year, the female Phalanger usually produces 

 but one young at a birth, which at first is of a reddish hue; but 

 occasionally a pair may be found in the pouch. 



