362 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



fy If. Savilli-Kint, F.Z.S. 



COMMON GREY OPOSSUM, OR PHALANGER 



The fur of this species is in great demand far the manufacture of 

 carriage-rugs 



up into a furry white ball in one corner of 

 the cage, the head, limbs, or other features 

 being at such times altogether indistinguish- 

 able. The aid of the magnesium flash-light 

 was successfully called into service to secure 

 the photographic likeness of this animal, here 

 reproduced, which was taken while it was en- 

 joying its evening meal. 



As previously mentioned, some representa- 

 tives of the flying-phalanger group are no 

 larger than mice, and are furnished in a similar 

 manner with a parachute-like membrane that 

 enables them to take abnormally long flying 

 leaps, or as it were to sail horizontally through 

 the air. The PYGMY FLYING-PHALANGER, whose 

 length of body does not exceed 2\ inches, is one 

 of the most interesting. The tail in this form 

 is also adapted for aerial flotation, the long hairs 

 that grow upon this appendage being arranged in 

 two parallel lines like the vanes of a feather. Its 

 distribution is limited to the south and eastern 

 districts of the Australian Continent. There 

 are also a number of mouse- and squirrel-like 

 phalangers destitute of the flying-membrane, 

 which in this respect very closely resemble in 

 external aspect more typical members of the 

 Rodent Order. One form in particular, the 

 STRIPED PHALANGER of New Guinea, decorated 



with broad longitudinal black and white stripes, is singularly suggestive of some of the variously 

 striped American squirrels. This interesting island of New Guinea also produces a little PYGMY 

 PHALANGER with a feather-like tail which, except for the absence of a parachute or flying- 

 membrane, is the very counterpart of the Australian kind. Another species, which in shape, 

 size, and more especially with reference to its long, pointed snout, closely resembles a shrew- 

 mouse, is found in Western Australia. The tail of this species, known as the LONG-SNOUTED 

 PHALANGER, is highly prehensile ; and it is also provided with a long, slender, protrusile tongue, 

 with which it abstracts the honey from Banksias and other flowers, upon which it customarily feeds. 

 The two large phalangers known as the BLACK and GREY or VULPINE OPOSSUMS, which are 

 chiefly laid under contribution for the Australian fur supplies, are provided with prehensile 

 tails, the under side of the extremity of which grasps the supporting fulcrum and is devoid 

 of hair. The adaptation of the tail for use as a fifth hand as in the New World monkeys 

 is, however, much more conspicuously manifested in what are known to the colonists as the 

 RING-TAILED OPOSSUMS, and to zoologists as CRESCENT-TOOTHED PHALANGERS. In these the 

 tail tapers to a fine point, and the hair throughout the terminal third of this appendage 

 is so fine and short that it at first sight presents the appearance of being entirely naked. 

 This terminal third of the tail, moreover, in the greater number of species, contrasts with the 

 remaining portion by being white in hue. It occasionally happens, however, that individuals 

 occur which are entirely white. One such which came into the writer's possession was 

 obtained from the Bruni Islands, in the Derwent Estuary, Tasmania, and afterwards became 

 a great pet with the young people at Government House, Hobart. It is an interesting 

 circumstance that the Bruni Islands were noted for the production of albino animals of 

 various descriptions, white kangaroos and white emus having also been obtained from this 

 locality. Probably some peculiarity of the soil, and its action on the vegetable food the animals 



