THE VULPINE PHALANGER 



(Trichosurus vulpecula) 



THE Vulpine Phalanger is the animal commonly known in Australia 

 as the Opossum, although it is a very different animal in many ways 

 from the true Opossums of America, and belongs to a family (Phalan- 

 geridce) closely allied to the Kangaroos ; although the general shape 

 of the creature is very different, and quite of the ordinary quadruped 

 type. The limbs of this Australian Opossum are short, and all the 

 paws have five toes ; those on the fore-foot present nothing peculiar 

 in appearance, but in the hind-foot the second and third toes are 

 joined in a common skin up to the claws, and the first, which is 

 opposable to the others like a thumb, has no nail. The tail is bare 

 on the under-surface at the end, and it is prehensile. 



The teeth of the Phalanger are a fairly complete set, there being 

 six incisors in the upper jaw and four in the lower, while canines are 

 present in the upper only, and are not large. The grinders are well 

 represented, and the centre pair of lower incisors are large, as in 

 Kangaroos. In size this pretty animal rather exceeds an ordinary Cat ; 

 its coat is thick and soft, and in colour generally corresponds with 

 the specimens shown in the illustration, over most of Australia. In 

 Tasmania, however, the creature grows to a greater size, and is sooty- 

 brown all over. A pretty white specimen was once shown at our 

 Zoological Gardens ; its eyes were dark brown, not pink as is so 

 often the case in albinistic animals. 



This beast is presumably the proverbial " 'Possum " which lives up 

 gum-trees, those trees being so important an element in the Australian 

 flora; it is a true climbing animal, seldom coming to the ground, and 

 moving slowly when there. Even on a tree it is not very active, and 

 can be caught by a good climber. It is quite nocturnal, and spends 

 the day sleeping in a hole in a tree, whence it is sometimes rudely 

 extracted by the Australian blacks, who jerk the poor 'Possum out by 

 the tail, and dash its head against the trunk before it has time to bite 

 and scratch in self-defence. It is relished by these people as food, 

 but their liking for eating it would not be much recommendation to a 



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