360 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



corner and article of furniture that could afford shelter failed to recover him. That the 

 little creature was lost through some one having unwittingly left the door of the apartment 

 open, permitting its escape, was the only and much deplored conclusion that could be arrived 

 at. Towards evening, however, there was a slight rustle close at hand, and Master Tiny 

 was discovered emerging, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, from the top of one 

 of the old-fashioned china dogs that decorated the hotel room mantelpiece. The ornament, 

 seemingly intact from the front, had the back of the head battered in. Through the resulting 

 crevice the little animal had managed to squeeze itself, having come to the conclusion, doubtless, 

 that this newly chosen retreat more nearly resembled the cavernous shelter of its native 

 tree-spout than its accustomed artificially constructed box. This singular domicile Master 

 Tiny was permitted to monopolise for the remainder of his sojourn at that hostelry. One of 

 the favourite diversions of this little phalanger during the evenings was to climb up the 

 curtain and cornice of the room he occupied, and thence hurl himself through the air with 

 outspread parachute to the writer at the opposite end. The apartment, happening to be the 

 commercial room of the hotel, some thirty feet in length, gave him good scope for exercising 

 his characteristic flying leaps. The attitude invariably maintained during these flights is 

 aptly illustrated in the accompanying photograph ; the body is never poised with the head 

 inclined downwards, as is commonly depicted in artists' fancy sketches of the animal contained 

 in popular natural histories. A friend of the writer's in Tasmania, who kept one of these 

 flying-phalangers as a household pet, was accustomed to leave a crevice of the window open at 

 night, so that the little fellow could go in and out as it liked. After the manner of most 

 pets, however, a day arrived upon which its box was found vacant, a marauding cat or other 

 disaster having apparently compassed its untimely end. 



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Phato by If. Samllt-KiM, F.Z.S. 



LESSER FLYING-PHALANGER 



Illustrating position maintained during its remarkable flying leaps 



