﻿THE DORMOUSE-PHALANGERS. Ill 



normal proportions, their relative lengths being in the order 4, 

 3, 5, 2, I ; claws shorter than in Pdaurus ; tail long, cylindrical, 

 and bushy. Skull and teeth as in the genus last-named. 



The rare and little-known animal which is the sole re- 

 presentative of this genus appears to be closely allied to the 

 ancestral form from which the Flying Phalangers of the genus 

 Fetaiirus have originated. 



I. leadbeater's phalanger. gymnobelideus leadbeateri. 



Gymnobelideus leadbeateri, McCoy, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser, 3, 

 vol. XX., p. 287 (1867); Thomas, Cat. Marsup. Brit. Mus., 

 p. 149 (1888). 



Characters. — Fur soft and close. General colour brownish- 

 grey ; under-parts yellowish ; a dark median streak along the 

 nape and back ; a dark patch below the base of the ear, and 

 fainter ones above and below the eye. Ears large, semi-ellip- 

 tical, and nearly naked towards the tips ; toe-pads of fore feet 

 large and wrinkled ; hinder pads of both fore and hind feet 

 large, low, and finely striated. Tail pale brown. Length of 

 head and l^ody about 5I inches ; of tail 6h inches. 



Distribution. — Victoria, in the neighbourhood of the Bass river. 



THE DORMOUSE-PHALANGERS. GENUS DROMICIA. 



Dromicia, Gray, in Grey's Australia, Appendix, vol. ii., p. 407 

 (1841). 



Size small; ears large, thin, and almost naked; no parachute- 

 like expansion on the flanks ; toes normally proportioned, the 

 relative lengths of those of the fore limb being 3, 4, 2, 5, i ; 

 fore claws short and rudimentary, hind ones normal. Tail cy- 

 lindrical, furry at the base, elsewhere scaly and clothed with 

 short hairs at the extreme tip roughened and naked inferiorly 



