1. TAESIPES. 135 



the first specimen (wliicli is sent home) died, I fear from starvation, 

 for I was_ told that they feed on roots and nuts ; but this I found 

 was a mistake, for they are carnivorous and feed on moths and 

 flies, at least the last we had did so ; it used to take the moths &c. 

 by their two wings, holding them by its fore paws; it ate the 

 bodies, and the wings it threw away. I never saw it dmnk. It 

 generally slept during the day rolled up like a ball, but at night it 

 became very lively, and was fond of climbing branches of trees ; it 

 would hang suspended by its tail to a small branch, and suddenly 

 jump to another." 



Mr. Gilbert also, after speaking of the eagerness with which the 

 Tarsipes caught and eat flies, says * :— " The artificial food given it 

 was sopped bread made very sweet with sugar, into which it 

 inserted its long tongue precisely in the way in which the honey- 

 eaters among birds do theirs into the flower-cups for honey. . . . 

 Mr. Johnson Drummond shot a pair in the act of sucking the honey 

 from the blossoms of the Melaleuca ; he watched them closely, and 

 distinctly saw them insert their long tongues into the flower 

 precisely after the manner of the birds above-mentioned." 



o, b. Ad. al. c? ? , 9/85. Perth, W. A. Government of Western 



Australia fP.]. 



c. Skeleton. Swan R., W. A, 



d. Ad. St., 28/6/43. Albany, W. A. Gould Con. 



(J. Gilbert). 



e. Ad. sk, cJ. King George's Sir G. Grey [P. & C.]. 



Sound. {Type of T. spensercB, Gray.) 



/. Ad. sk. Western Australia. Sir G. Grey [P. & C.]. 



^- litauif 4 ?• ^ ^"""''^ ^"""' ^'^- ^''•^- 



/, Jc. Skulls. (Figured by Waterhouse, I. c.) G. R. Waterhouse, Esq. 



Subfamily II. PHALANGERIN^. 



Tail long, generally prehensile. Snout short and broad. Tongue 

 not extensile. No cheek-pouches. Csecum present, large. Stomach 

 simple. Bullae low and rounded, or not inflated at all. 



Teeth large and well developed. One or more additional teeth 

 present between the canine and the large p.* above, and between i.^ 

 and p.* below J. 



* Gould, I. c. 



t These specimens, lite the rest of Mr. Gunn's collections, were sent as from 

 Tasmania ; but they agree so pi-eciBely with ordinary Western specimens, and 

 the species would so certainly hare been discovered if occurring in Tasmania, 

 that there can be little doubt tljat they really.came from Western Australia. 



t Except occasionally in Pseudochirus and THchomrm. 



