POUCHED MAMMALS. 



199 



Fii). 104. 



feeders, subsisting mainly on fruits and leaves ; but a few consume insects, 

 which form either the whole or a portion of their diet, and some are 

 carnivorous. 



The peculiar animal known as the koala (Phascolarctus citureus), which 

 presents some external resemblance to a small bear, is the sole representative 

 of a sub-family {Phascolarctince) characterised 

 by the following distinctive features: — The tail 

 is absent, the muzzle thort and broad, the 

 tongue non-extensile, the cheeks furnished 

 with pouches for the storage of food, the 

 intestine provided with a caecum, or blind 

 appendage, the teeth relatively large, and only 

 a single pair of pre-molars in the upper jaw. 

 In size the koala is a rather large animal, 

 measuring about 32 in. in length. Its build is 

 stout and clumsy, and the thick woolly fur is 

 generally greyish above and whitish below. The 

 large ears are thickly haired and ragged at the 

 edges ; the front toes are sub-equal in length, 

 the fourth being the longest and the first the 

 shortest, while both the iirst and second can be 

 opposed to the other two. The strong claws 

 are thick and sharp, and in both the fore and 

 hind limbs the soles of the feet are simply 

 granulated, and have no striated pads. The 

 female has a single pair of teats. In the 

 skeleton there are eleven pairs of ribs, and the 

 upper molar teeth have short, broad, and squared crowns, bearing curved 

 longitudinal crests, of which the convexity is directed outwards. The 

 koala, which is confined to Eastern Australia, is a dull, sluggish creature, 

 addicted to crawling on the stems and branches of gum-trees in a deliberate 

 lazy manner, and feeding mainly on leaves and flowers. During the day- 

 time it generally lies asleep in the hollow of some forest giant, but at night 

 prowls among the topmost branches in search of food, the females carrying 

 their oflfapring securely perched on their backs, where the woolly fur affords 

 them a secure foothold. Only a single young one is produced at a birth, 

 and the adults seem to be more or less completely solitary animals. 



The second sub-family {Phalangerinm), which inciQdes all the other 

 members of the family save one, may be defined as follows: — The tail, 

 which is always well-developed, is generally prehensile, the muzzle is short 

 and broad, the tongue is incapable of extension, there are no cheek-pouches, 

 the intestine has a csecum, the stomach is simple, and the teeth are compara- 

 tively large. The first and typical genus (Plialanger) is represented by the cus- 

 cuses; of which there are five species, ranging from Celebes and the Moluccas 

 to Australia and New Guinea. They are rather large, or medium-sized, 

 somewhat cat-like animals, of stout build, with thick and woolly fur, which 

 may be either coarse and wiry, or fine and silky, and moderate-sized or small 

 ears. In the fore-feet the toes are nearly equal in length, their relative 

 lengths being in the order 4, 3, 5, 2, 1. The long claws of all the feet are 

 stout and curved, and the naked soles are striated, with large and ill-defined 

 cushion-like pads. The prehensile tail is stout and strong, with its ter- 

 minal portion naked, and either smooth or granulated. Two pairs of 



-Koala {Phascolarctus 

 cinereus). 



