MARSUPIALIA. 



Phalangista* the Phalanger. 



These are arboreal animals with prehensile tails ; 

 whose life is spent chiefly in roaming amongst the 

 branches by night, seeking insects and fruit, and 

 sleeping in the forks and hollows by day. They eat 

 also the buds and young leaves of certain trees. 

 Though their form is much modified, their structure 

 shews a close alliance with the last genus, while 

 in some particulars they approach the Dasyuri. 

 They are scattered over the Australasian Continent 

 and Archipelago ; few exceed the size of a cat. 

 They include three sub-genera, Phalangista, Petau- 

 rus,-\ and Phascolarctos^ which vary a little in their 

 dentition, but are all marked by having the two in- 

 most toes of the hind feet united. 



The true Phalangers have a large tail, often bushy, 

 but prehensile at the extremity : the teeth are, in- 

 cisors -f f ; canines J ^ ; false molars ^ } ; true mo- 

 lars -J -J = 30. Mr. Bell, in the transactions of the 

 Linnean Society, has given some interesting par- 

 ticulars of the habits of a small species (Phalangista 

 Nana) in confinement, which are said to have re- 

 sembled those of the Dormouse. 



The second division comprehends the Flying Pha- 

 langers, marked like the Flying Squirrels, which they 



* $ aXayl, phalanx, [used for] a finger. 



f neraw, petao, to unfold. 



J *a<rxwXflf, phaskolos, a pouch, and ajxraj, arktos, a bear. 



Vol. xvi. p. 121. . 



