PHALANGERS. 255 
can be protruded at will a long, slender, and highly extensile tongue, sharply 
pointed at its extremity. The rather small ears are rounded and clothed with 
very short hairs; and the beady black eyes are small and prominent. The feet 
are of the same general type as in the typical phalangers; but from the small 
size of their nails, which are mostly embedded in fleshy parts, they appear more 
adapted for grasping small twigs than for ascending tree-trunks. The tail shghtly 

THE LONG-SNOUTED PHALANGER (% nat. size),—After Gould. 
exceeds the length of the head and body, and is cylindrical and tapering, with 
but a scanty clothing of extremely short hairs, and endowed with prehensile 
power. The fur is short, close, and somewhat coarse. The colour is subject to 
considerable individual variation, but its general tint is grey, more or less suffused 
with rusty red above and yellow beneath. A black line runs from the head along 
the middle of the back to the root of the tail; and on either side of this line are 
two greyish bands, each bordered by a rusty brown stripe passing imperceptibly 
into the rufous of the flanks. The upper part of the head is brown, passing into 
