LONG-SNOUTED PHALANGE R 231 



bulbs and roots in the ground, although it procures most of its food, which includes 

 insects and worms as well as berries, by turning over dead leaves and other rubbish 

 with its front paws. While eating, it holds its food in its front paws in the same 

 manner as a squirrel. 

 Long-snouted The earlier colonists of Australia and Tasmania were singularly 



Phalanger. unfortunate in the names they bestowed on several of the animals 

 with which they came in contact in their new home. We have already mentioned 

 the inappropriateness of the name " native cats," as applied to the typical members 

 of the Dasyuridce ; and, if they had to use the name opossum at all, it would have 

 been far better if it had been used in connection with those animals. As ill-luck 

 would have it, the colonists, however, applied this designation to a group of 



THE LONG-SNOUTED PHALANGER. 



arboreal marsupials closely connected with the kangaroo tribe by means of the 

 musk-kangaroo. Naturalists have attempted to get over the difficulty by pro- 

 posing to apply the term " phalanger " to the miscalled Australian opossums, but 

 since in popular language they will continue to be known by that name, naturalists 

 must bow to the inevitable. The designation " phalanger " is, however, a con- 

 venient one to appry to the more aberrant Australian members of the family 

 Phalangeridce, the typical representatives of which are the cuscuses of North 

 Australia, New Guinea, and Celebes. 



Although the musk-kangaroo renders it a somewhat difficult matter to draw 

 a concise distinction between the Macropodce and the Phalangeridce, all the 

 members of the latter group have clawless first toes opposable to the other digits, 

 and the second and third hind-toes slender and united by skin ; but the fourth 



