THE FLYING-SQUIRRELS OF ASIA AND AFRICA 243 



colonists) of Australia, since in one respect they present 

 a curious analogy with the flying-squirrels of the Old 

 World. It need hardly be said that these Australian 

 flying-phalangers are true marsupials, with a dentition 

 resembling that of the ordinary phalangers, or, as they 

 are locally called, opossums. The larger flying-phalangers, 

 which constitute the genus Petaurus, are characterised by 

 the full development of the parachute and the rounded 

 bushy tail. As in the case of the Asiatic flying squirrels, 

 we are unable to point out the non-volant type of 

 phalanger from which they are descended. 



On the other hand, the beautiful pigmy flying-phalanger 

 {Acrobates), which differs from the larger forms by the 

 scantier development of its parachute, as well as by its 

 tail being formed after the type of a feather — that is to 

 say, being flattened, with a line of hair along each edge — 

 is evidently descended from the non-flying feather-tailed 

 phalanger (DisHchurus), or the immediate ancestor of the 

 latter. In this case, therefore, we have an exact parallelism 

 to the descent of the flying representatives of the scale-tails 

 from the non-flying Zenkerella. 



