5!b EUSII -SVAXDEEINGS. 



put tlie board in on the fur side first, is that the skin may 

 not fasten hard on to the board, -n-liich it would do if the 

 board was put in to the fleshy side first ; but I fancy, if 

 the board was well greased, it would not stick. A little 

 wood-ashes rubbed on the fleshy part of the skin, assists 

 much in drying it ; and I have often found wood-ashes, 

 sifted fine, an excellent preservative both for animals and 

 bird skins, when no poison was at hand. 



The Ming-tail Opossum is much smaller, scarcely half 

 the size of the common opossum. The general colour is 

 a plain dark brown, often with a very red tinge ; the 

 breast and belly pure white, the fur short and close, more 

 bristly, and the skins are worth little or nothing for 

 rugs. The tail is long and bare, like a rat's, with a white 

 tip on the end. It is a pretty little animal, and soon 

 becomes tame. They principally frequent thick tea-tree 

 scrub, where they live in small colonies, building a drey 

 like the squirrel at home. Tou do, however, occasionally 

 at night find them in the gum-trees with the others, but 

 they are nowhere so common as the large opossum. I 

 have occasionally taken three young ones from the pouch 

 of a ring-tail. Besides these, there are many Australian 

 opossums, or Phalangists, as they are more rightly called. 



"We had two species of flying squirrel in our forests, — 

 the large hlacTc and white, or Magpie Squirrel, or Plying 

 Fox, and the little Sugar Squirrel, or " Tooan " of the 

 natives. The magpie squirrel was rare in our district. 

 It is principally found, I think, in the high Stringy-bark 

 ranges, and they abound in the ranges on the Ciipps- 

 land road. Strange to say, no opossums are found tliere. 



