284 PETAURUS. 



Length from nose to root of tail, 20 inches ; tail. 

 22 inches; nose to ear, 2 inches 2 lines; ear, 1 inch 

 4 lines ; tarsus, 2 inches ; fore-foot, 1 inch 7 lines. 



Habitat, New South Wales " Port Macquarie." 

 Catalogue of the Australian Museum called the 

 Grey Flying Squirrel. 



This animal varies considerably in its colouring, 

 and is often of a greyish-black colour above, the 

 dark hairs of the upper parts of the body being more 

 or less pencilled with grey ; the flank membranes 

 are always of a paler hue than the back, and the 

 limbs are black externally. Specimens which are 

 totally white, and others which are white and irre- 

 gularly variegated with grey, are not rare. 



This species is at once distinguished from all others 

 of the genus,* by the ears being entirely covered ex- 

 ternally with long and dense fur ; they are broader, 

 and not nearly so long in proportion as in P. flavi- 

 venter, which approaches it most nearly in size. 



PERON'S PETAURUS. 



Petaurus Peronii. 



Petaurista Peronii, Desmarest. Nouveau Diet. (T Hist. Nat. 

 2d Edit., Tom. xxv., p. 404. 



Mammalogie, sp. 420, p. 270. 



General tint of the body above, brown ; beneath, 

 white ; head brown, particularly around the eyes ; 



* P. Peronii has the same character, but I regard that as 

 the young of the present species. 



