384 MARSUPIALS. 



alone they have hitherto been found. They differ from the Opossums 

 chiefly in their dentition : and in accordance with this difference 

 their diet is more decidedly of a vegetable kind(l). The Australian 

 Phalangers feed chiefly on the tender buds and the leaves of 

 Eucalypti : but according to Temminck(2), the Indian Phalangers 

 are omnivorous, and combine insects with fruits and leaves. . Mr. 

 Ogilby(3) states that both " the Phalangers and Petaurists display 

 so decided a preference for live birds, as to make it probable that 

 these constitute a main portion of their food in a state of nature." 

 I find, however, that the intestinal canal, and especially the Ccecum, 

 offers so great an additional development in length, as, with the 

 corresponding predominance of the incisors, and atrophy of the 

 canines, to indicate clearly a natural and constant tendency in the 

 Phalangers to a vegetable diet. 



Genus Petaurus. — There are many species of Marsupialia limited 

 to Australia and closely resembling, or identical with, the true 

 Phalangers in their dental characters and the structure of the 

 feet. I allude to the Petaurists or Flying Opossums : these, how- 

 ever, present an external character so easily recognizable, and in- 

 fluencing so materially the locomotive faculties, as to claim for it 

 more consideration than the modifications of the spurious molars 

 which we have just been considering in the Phalangers. A fold of 

 the skin is extended on each side of the body between the fore 

 and hind legs, which, when outstretched, forms a lateral wing 

 or parachute ; but which, when the legs are in the position for 

 ordinary support or progression, is drawn close to the side of the 

 animal by the elasticity of the subcutaneous cellular membrane, 

 and there forms a mere tegumentary ridge. These delicate and 

 beautiful Marsupials have been separated generically from the 

 Phalangers under the name of Petaurus : they further differ from 

 the Phalangers in wanting the prehensile character of the tail, 

 which, in some species of Petaurus^ has a general clothing of long 



(1) In the stomach and intestines of specimens sent to me in spirits from Australia, 

 I have never found any other aUmentary substances but those of a vegetable nature. 



(2) Monographies de Mammalogie, p. 3. 



(3) Mag. Hist. Nat. 1837, p. 458. 



