ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



Photograph hi/ W. H. D. LeSouef 



THE KOALA IN ITS TREE-TOP HAUNT 



tives in finding the hollow in which the opos- 

 sums are coiled up asleep. They usually are 

 caught by placing a long, thick branch or stick 

 against the tree, and the animal will always as- 

 cend by this in preference to going up the 

 straight trunk. In descending the branch, the 

 animal advances head first, thrusts its head 

 through a wire noose that lias been placed on 

 the stick, and thereby meets its fate. Many are 

 shot ; a moonlight night being chosen for the 

 purpose, as the animals then can be distin- 

 guished against the face of the moon. The skins 

 from the animals that have been shot are not 

 as valuable as those that have been snared. 



The smaller race of phalangers, called the 

 Ring-Tailed, (P seudochirus) are found in Tas- 

 mania, Australia and New Guinea. They also 

 construct bulky, domed nests of sticks and 

 leaves near the top of some thickly growing 

 shrub, on which their tracks are not easily seen. 

 They have from two to three young at a birth 

 which, on leaving their mother's pouch, hang to 

 her back for some weeks, by clinging with their 

 claws to her fur, and are carried about until 

 thev are able to look after themselves. As their 



tail is prehensile and frequently used for cling- 

 ing, the underpart of the end of it is rough and 

 bare. Sometimes when shot and badly wounded 

 they will hang on by their tails before life 

 leaves them, and remain in that position after 

 death for a considerable time; frequently a day. 

 The end of the tail is usually white. In the 

 Herbert River district in Queensland, a small 

 lemur-like variety, {P. lemuroides) is found. 

 The soft, woolly brownish-grey fur is darker on 

 the shoulders and lighter on the hips, and the 

 head is brown and the tail black It measures 

 fifteen inches and tail twelve inches. 



Australia possesses other forms of Flying 

 Phalangers that are popularly called Flying 

 Squirrels. When the Phalangers stretch the 

 feet well out. the loose skin that acts as a 

 parachute holds the air sufficiently to allow the 

 animal to glide from the higher branches of one 

 tree to the lower trunk of another; the long, 

 furry tail acting as a rudder. As they alight, a 

 quick upper movement is made, the sharp claws 

 enabling them to hold on to the bark, when they 

 quickly can ascend the tree again and repeat 



Photograph by W. H. D. LeSovef 



KOALA, OR NATIVE BEAR 



