The Structure of Wings 



261 



legs out straight and thereby spreading the parachute membrane. They can 

 guide the course of their gradual descent by means of the tail, which is long 

 and bushy in the fllying phalangers and flying squirrels. 



The flying phalangers are related to the opossums, and, like most of their 

 allies, inhabit Australia. The habits of the yellow-bellied flying phalanger 

 are described by Mr. Gould as follows: "This animal is common in all the 

 brushes of New South Wales, particularly those which stretch along the 

 coast from Port Philip to Moreton Bay. In these vast forests trees of one 

 kind or another are perpetually flowering, and thus offer a never-failing sup- 

 ply of the blossoms upon which it feeds; the flowers of the various kinds of 

 gums, some of which are of great magnitude, are the principal favorites. 

 Like the rest of the genus, it is nocturnal in its habits, dwelling in holes 

 and in the spouts of the larger branches during the day, and displaying the 

 greatest activity at night while running over the small, leafy branches, fre- 

 quently even to their very extremities, in search of insects and the honey of 

 the newly opened blossoms. Its structure being ill -adapted for terrestrial 

 habits, it seldom descends to the ground except 

 for the purpose of passing to a tree too distant 

 to be reached by flight. When chased or 

 forced to flight, it ascends to the highest 

 branch and performs the most enormous leaps, 

 sweeping from tree to tree with wonderful 

 address; a slight elevation gives its body an im- 

 petus which, with the expansion 

 of its membrane, enables it to pass 

 to a considerable distance, always 

 ascending a little at the extremity 

 of the leap ; by this 

 ascent the animal 

 is prevented from 

 receiving the shock 

 which it would 

 otherwise sustain." 



The flying squir- 

 rels very closely 

 resemble the fly- 

 ing phalangers, al- 

 though they are flying lizard (draco) 

 really more closely related to the squirrels, rats and rabbits. The larger 

 flying squirrels inhabit India, Siberia and eastern Europe. One beauti- 

 ful little species, however, occurs in the United States, although we rarely 

 see it, because it does not usually leave the hollow tree in which it sleeps till 

 after nine o'clock in the evening. Then it begins a very active search for its 



