GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 23 
figure on the same page. The author is not aware that this peculiar comport- 
ment of the caudal appendage is exhibited by any other known mammal, though it 
would appear to be to some extent approximated by certain of the Lemurs and in 
the Saki monkeys. 
The white example here figured and described, was a female, and, when 
captured, had a half-grown male cub in its pouch. This young one, while having 
white ears and a white breast, was otherwise of a dark Chinchilla orey tint, like the 
more ordinary members of his species. A back view of this young individual, well 
illustrating the great length and thickness of its beautiful fur, is reproduced in 
Plate IV., fig. 4. Although this species has been frequently imported to Europe, 
neither of these two Queensland individuals took kindly to any other diet than 
the foliage of their native gum trees, and more especially the Queensland Peppermint 
variety, Eucalyptus microcorys. Efforts were made to accustom them to a regimen of 
fruits and farinaceous substances, with the view of bringing them to England. The 
young animal unfortunately succumbed to the ordeal, and the white one was left in 
charge of an ardent admirer, who guaranteed it a constant and unlimited enjoyment 
of its native pabulum. 
Among the several species of Australian Flying Phalangers, or so-called Flying 
Squirrels, the little form known in many districts as the “Sugar Squirrel,” Petaurus 
breviceps, is in many respects the one best adapted for making a domestic pet, and 
is most justly alluded to in Flower and Lydekker’s volume, previously referred to, 
as “the most beautiful of all mammals.” Its size is somewhat less than that of 
the British Squirrel, its thick downy fur most comparable in colour and texture 
to that of the Chinchilla, and its habits in captivity are most attractive and 
endearing. Its range in the Australian Colonies is practically cosmopolitan, it 
occurring in Queensland, the Southern Colonies, and as far north as the Kimberley 
district of Western Australia. Although apparently. not originally indigenous to 
Tasmania, it has been transported to and liberated there within recent years, and 
is now tolerably abundant in the midland districts of that island-Colony. In 
association with the several individuals kept at various times by the writer, it was 
observed that the leaping, or so-called “flying” properties they so prominently 
manifest, are somewhat erroneously represented.in the majority of works on Natural 
History. In the figures given of this and other species of Phalangers taking their 
characteristic leaps, the body is almost invariably depicted as assuming a horizontal 
position, or, if inclined at any angle, in such manner that the head is the lowermost. 
