200 



MAMMALIA ORDER XL MARSUriALIA. 



teats are borne by the female. Cuscuses are slow and sleepy animals, 

 completely arboreal and mainly herbivorous in their habits, passing the 

 day curled up asleep among the densest foliage of forest trees, and only be- 

 coming active as the shades of evening 

 approach. A great amount of varia- 

 tion obtains in the coloration of the 

 different sexes and individuals of the 

 same species, while there is frequently 

 some difference in the teeth. \\ hereas 

 in the black cuscus of Celebes (P. 

 ursinus) both sexes are of a uniformly 

 dark blackish brown colour ; in the 

 widely distributed spotted cuscus (P. 

 maculatus) the sexes are generally 

 different, and the coloration takes the 

 Fig. 105. -SPOTTED Ccscus (Phalanger form of various combinations of white, 



maculatua). rufous, and black, the females being 



generally grey and black, while the 



smaller males are usually spotted, although occasionally they resemble an 

 ordinary grey female, save for a few indistinct whitish spots on the flanks and 

 back. Nearly allied to the cuscuses are the true phalangers (Trichosurus) 

 the opossums of the colonists of which the two species are restricted to the 

 Australian mainland and Tasmania. These also are large, stoutly-built cat- 

 like animals, with thick, woolly fur, and short or medium ears. The front 

 toes may be -distinguished from those of the cuscuses in that relative lengths 

 follow the order 4, 3, 2, 5, 1 ; the claws being large and strong, and the soles 

 of the hind-feet densely haired beneath the heel, but elsewhere naked, and 

 furnished with low, rounded, ill-defined pads. In the powerful pre- 

 hensile tail the terminal third or half ia bare infcriorly, and the 

 extreme tip devoid of hair all round. A peculiar gland is situated 

 in the centre of the chest. Among the teeth, the molars have four 

 cusps, tending to unite into a pair of transverse ridges ; and the last 

 pre-molar, which closely approximates to the corresponding tooth of 

 Hypsiprymnodon, is large, placed obliquely, and marked by vertical groov- 

 ings. The common phalanger (T. vulpinus) takes up its habitation in the 

 branches of the tallest red and blue 

 gum-trees of the Australian and Tas- 

 manian forests, passing the day in 

 slumber, and wandering forth at night 

 to brouse on their leaves, bulbs, and 

 seeds. In climbing, they are much 

 aided by their highly prehensile tails ; 

 and on the rare occasions when they 

 descend to the ground, it is probably 

 for the purpose of drinking. In the 

 breeding season, and less commonly at 

 other times, phalangers utter a loud 

 cry ; and, as a rule, but one offspring 

 is produced at a birth, although there 

 may occasionally be a pair. More numerous, and at the same time more 

 widely distributed than the preceding, are the ring-tailed-phalangers 

 (Pseudochirus), of which there are eleven specific representatives, whose 



Fig. 106. COMMON PHALANGER (Trichosurus 

 vul^inus). 



