PHALANGERIDE 149 
and slender muzzle. Mouth-opening small. The two lower 
incisors are long, very slender, sharp-pointed, and horizontally 
placed. All the other teeth are simple, conical, minute, and placed 
at considerable and irregular intervals apart in the jaws, the number 
appearing to vary in different individuals and even on different 
sides of the same individual. The formula in a specimen in the 
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons is 7 2, ¢ 4, p and m 3 on 
one side, and # on the other; total 20. Rami of the mandible 
extremely slender, nearly straight, and without coronoid process or 
inflected angle. Fore feet with five well-developed toes, furnished 
with small, flat, scale-like nails, not reaching to the extremity of 
the digits. Hind feet rather long and slender compared with those 
of the Phalangerine, having a well-developed opposable and nailless 
hallux ; second and third digits syndactylous, with sharp compressed 
curved claws; the fourth and fifth free, and with small flat nails. 
Ears of moderate size and rounded. Tail longer than the body and 
head, scantily clothed with short hairs, prehensile. Vertebree: C 7, 
D13,L 5,8 3, C 24. 
Of this singular genus but one species, 7’. rostratus (Fig. 46), is 
known, about the size of a common Mouse. It inhabits Western 
Australia, lives in trees and bushes, uses its tail in climbing, and 
feeds on honey, which it procures by inserting its long tongue into 
the blossoms of Melaleuce, etc. One kept in confinement by Mr. 
Gould was also observed to eat flies. 
Subfamily Phalangerinz.— Teeth normal. One or more 
rudimentary teeth between the upper canine and fourth premolar, 
and between the first lower incisor and fourth premolar. Tongue 
of ordinary structure. No cheek-pouches. Stomach and ascending 
colon simple. Cezecum long, simple. Tail well-developed, generally 
prehensile. 
A numerous group of animals, varying from the size of a mouse 
to that of a large cat, arboreal in their habits, and abundantly 
distributed throughout the Australian region. The members of 
this group are the typical representatives of the family, and are 
commonly known to the colonists as Opossums. 
Phalanger.—The typical genus Phalanger (Cuscus) presents the 
following characters. No flying membrane; size large or medium, 
and build stout and clumsy; fur thick and woolly. Ears short 
or medium, hairy externally, and in some cases also internally. 
Toes of fore feet subequal, their relative lengths in the order 4, 3, 
5, 2,1. Claws long, stout, and curved. Soles of feet naked and 
striated, with large ill-defined pads. Tail stout and markedly 
prehensile, with the proximal half furred like the body, and the 
terminal portion entirely naked. Four mammez. Skull (Fig. 47) 
1 Storr, Prodromus Meth. Mam. p. 38 (1780). Syn. Phalangista, Geoffroy, 
Bull. Soc. Philom. vol. i. p. 106 (1796). 
