﻿THE RING-TAILED PHALANGERS. 95 



PJialingisfa InwhsH, Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. i., p. 107 



(1838). 

 Phalangista lamiginosa, Gould, Mammals of Australia, vol. i., 



pi. XX (1858). 

 Pseudochirus caudivolvulus, Jentink, Notes, Leyden Mus., 



vol. vii., p. 22 (1884). 



Pseudochirus peregrinus^ Thomas, Cat. Marsup. Brit. Mus., 



p. 172 (1888). 



{Plate XIL) 



Characters. — Size large ; fur shorter than in the preceding 

 species. General colour grey or rufous in variable proportions; 

 under-parts white, greyish-white, or rufous ; region round the 

 eyes frequently conspicuously rufous ; ears rather large, their 

 backs generally grey anteriorly, with the posterior white patch 

 distinct, sometimes uniformly rufous. Outer side of limbs 

 rufous ; feet white or pale rufous ; tail with the middle third 

 black or nearly so, from one to four inches of the tip white, 

 naked inferior portion from one to four inches in length, 

 smooth, and transversely striated. Length of head and body 

 about 16 inches ; of tail 14 inches. 



Distribution. — Eastern Australia, from Southern Queensland 

 to South Australia. 



Habits. — This species, which rejoices in a number of syno- 

 nyms, and was long confounded with P. cooki, is an animal 

 scarcely more than half the size of the common True Phalanger. 

 Nowhere so common as the latter, and but seldom met with in 

 the gum-trees, the Ring-tailed Phalanger generally frequents the 

 so called tea-tree scrub, where it lives in small colonies, and 

 constructs a nest not unlike that of the common Squirrel. 

 Although there is usually but a single offspring produced at a 

 birth, it is stated that as many as three young may occasionally 

 be found in the pouch of the female. The flesh is much less 



