﻿I02 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



HaT)its. — Like the other Flying Phalangers, this species 

 possesses the power of taking, with the aid of its parachute, 

 long flying leaps from tree to tree. The leap is always in c 

 downward direction, and may be described as a kind of floatino 

 through the air, which must not by any means be confoundec 

 with the true flight of a Bat or a Bird, which can be sustained 

 for an indefinite length of time, and is accompanied, and in- 

 deed produced, by rapid movements of the fore limbs. These 

 animals are generally found in hilly districts, where gum-trees 

 do not grow, and pass their whole time in the trees, feeding 

 on the leaves and fruit, and spending the day in some hollow 

 branch or within the stem itself, whence they issue forth for 

 their nocturnal flight. When disturbed, or in flight, they utter 

 a loud piercing scream, audible for a long distance. 



THE STRIPED PHALANGERS. GENUS DACTYLOPSILA. 

 Dadylopsila^ Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1858, p. 109. 



Size medium ; ears oval, nearly naked terminally ; no para- 

 chute-like membrane. Fore toes very unequal, the fourth much 

 the longest, the others in the order 3, 5, 2, i ; fourth and fifth 

 hind toes much longer than the others ; a prominent pad on 

 the wrist; claws long; tail long, cylindrical, evenly bushy, 

 with the extreme tip naked inferiorly. Body conspicuously 

 striped with black and white. Molar teeth oblong, with four 

 cusps. 



The two species of this genus, which ranges from Northern 

 Australia to New Guinea and the Aru Islands, are readily dis- 

 tinguished from all their allies by the great elongation of the 

 fourth toe of the fore limb. It has been suggested that this 

 toe is elongated for the purpose of extracting insects and their 

 larvae from holes in decayed wood and from beneath the 

 bark of trees, and consequently that the creatures are mainly 



