26 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



more appropriate substitute for his native hollow-tree branch than his elaborately 

 constructed cage. 



Another member of the superlatively-beautiful family of the Phalangistidse is the 

 exquisite little Pigmy Flying Mouse or Phalanger, Acrobates pygmaeus, of less dimensions 

 than the common mouse, furnished with a parachute, and having the hair on its tail 

 pinnately disposed like the barbs of a bird's quill feather. According to Gould, this 

 species also makes a charming pet, and the author regrets not having had the oppor- 

 tunity of making its personal acquaintance. The Cuscuses or typical representatives 

 of the genus Phalanger, while belonging to the Australian region, are now limited in 

 their distribution to New Guinea, and other islands of the East Indian Archipelago as 

 far west as Celebes. Though not hitherto recorded from the locality, the author on 

 one occasion observed an example of these animals in the woody scrub of Thursday 

 Island, Torres Straits. This island is but little over seventy miles from the nearest 

 land of New Guinea, but it may at the same time have been an escaped pet, the 

 species being not unfrequently brought in the boats trading between the two islands. 

 In general form and the remarkable slowness of their movements, the Cuscuses have 

 much in common with the Lemurine Lorises of the genus Nycticebus. The possession 

 of a long prehensile tail, like that of the ring-tailed Opossum, Pseudochirus, is 

 necessarily a prominent external feature in the Cuscus that is conspicuous for its 

 absence in all the Lorises. 



The typical little Australian Bear or Koala, technically known as Phascolarctos 

 cinereus, may be appropriately styled by way of contrast to the Flying Phalangers, 

 the most droll and bizarre of living mammals. In Natural History works, it is 

 generally represented with drooping head and a most sad and woebegone facial 

 expression. This, however, is a gross injustice to the little fellow, who, as seen under 

 the natural conditions represented in the photographs from life in Plate IV., is a 

 most contented and happy-looking little mortal. The habits of the Koala, like those 

 of the more typical Phalangers, are essentially arboreal. It is, however, a very slow 

 and leisurely-moving animal, contenting itself with abiding in and browsing upon the 

 leaves of one Eucalyptus tree for days and weeks together, and rarely descending to 

 the ground. In general form, in the complete absence of an external tail, and in its slow 

 movements and arboreal habits, the Australian Koala is somewhat suggestive of the South 

 American Sloths, Bradypodidre, This suggested analogy, is, of course, entirely super- 

 ficial, for the sloths, while belonging to the true, Edentate, order of the Eutheria, 

 possess that essential anatomical organisation that characterises all members of the 



