KOALA AND CUSCUS 
she scrambles through the gum tops. Its flesh is good to eat 
and its hide tans into excellent leather. 
Somewhat similar in habits, but more lemurlike in appear- 
ance and disposition, are the queer ciisciises, several species 
KOALA, OR AUSTRALIAN “ NATIVE BEAR.” 
of which inhabit northern Australia, New Guinea, and the 
islands west to Celebes, where they were met and described 
by both Wallace * and Forbes. They are about the size 
and shape of ferrets, have dense woolly fur, and a tendency 
toward piebald coloring, which gives them the name “tiger 
cat.” Like the koalas, they dwell in tree tops, feed on leaves 
and the like, and sleep in a decayed hollow; and the natives 
of the Moluccas, at least, hunt them to eat. 
Of similar habits are the typical phalangers, of which the 
best known is the common one, always called in Australia 
“‘opossum,”’ — an odd instance of the travels of an American 
Indian word. It is of the soft, richly colored skins, 80 to 
120 sewed together, of this and some related species, that the 
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