THE SUGAR SQUIRREL, OR SQUIRREL PETAURUS. 459 
The tail of the Hepoona Roo is almost as long as the body, and is heavily covered with 
long and soft fur of a general brown tint, warming to a reddish-rust near its insertion, 
and darkening into a blackish-brown near its tip. 
Sometimes the fur of this animal varies so widely from the colour which has just been 
described, that it can hardly be recognised as the same animal, except by a very careful 
inspection. In some specimens the back is ashy-grey, and the under portions of a dirty 
greyish-yellow, while in others the coat is variegated with brown, grey, and white, the 
only dark spot being the tip of the tail, which still retains its deep brown hue. A similar 
phenomenon takes place with the weasels, when their hair becomes white during a very 
sharp winter. 
In one or two instances, the fur is totally white, and in such cases it is evident that the 
animal can only be considered as an albino. 
The head of the Hepoona Roo is small, and its large and expressive ears are covered 
with hair. It is not a very small animal, as the total length is rather more than three 
feet, the head and body occupying one foot eight inches, and the tail rather exceeding 
eighteen inches in length. 
SUGAR SQUIRREL, OR SQUIRREL PETAURUS.—Petaurus Sciwreus. 
ON account of the wonderful resemblance which exists between the members of the 
genus Petaurus and the flying squirrels that belong to the family of rodents, the Petaurists 
have, ever since their discovery, been popularly known by the same title. There seems 
to be little doubt but that the Petaurists are the representatives of these flying rodents, 
and that the strange animal creation of Australasia is a kind of repetition of the ideas 
which formed the animal creation of the older world, but carried out in a different manner 
and for different purposes. 
The animal which is represented in the accompanying engraving is known by several 
popular names, the raost common of which is the SUGAR SQuIRREL. It is also called the 
NorFOLK ISLAND FLYING SQUIRREL, and the SQUIRREL PETAURUS. 
It is not nearly so large an aninal as the hepoona roo, being only sixteen inches in 
total length, of which measurement the tail occupies one moiety. 
The fur of the Sugar Squirrel is very beautiful, being of a nearly uniform brownish- 
grey, of a peculiarly delicate hue, and remarkably soft in its texture. The parachute 
membrane is grey above, but is edged with a rich brown band, and a bold stripe of 
blackish-brown is drawn along the curve of the spine, reaching from the point of the nose 
