292 PETAURUS. 



some parts must be exceedingly abundant. Upon 

 examining two large packages of skins, which I have 

 reason to believe came from New South Wales, I 

 found them to consist chiefly of this species, the 

 remainder were P. sciureus. In some specimens 

 the tip of the tail is white, they all agree in having 

 a cylindrical tail. In colouring the P. breviceps very 

 much resembles P. sciureus, it is however of a much 

 smaller size, the tail is more slender, and the skull 

 is proportionately broader and shorter than in that 

 species, as will be seen by the following dimen- 

 sions : 



P. brevicept. P. sciureus. 



Ins. Lin. Ins. Lin. 



Total length of skull, 1 3| 1 10 



Length of nasal bones, . . 5 07^ 



Length of frontal, . . . 6 84 



Length of palate, . . 8 1 1 



Width of skull, ... 1 1 2J 



In a Catalogue of the Specimens of Natural History 

 &c., contained in the Australian Museum of Sidney, 

 published in that town in 1837, a species of Petaurus 

 under the name of Peronii has the following note 

 attached to it. " This species has been supposed to be 

 a young specimen of P. sciureus^ and indeed it bears 

 a very close resemblance to that species in its mark- 

 ings, but having bred in confinement, it is now suffi- 

 ciently established to be a distinct species." From 

 this it appears that the animal referred to is smaller 

 than P. sciureus, having been supposed to be the 

 young, but nevertheless greatly resembles that ani- 



