326 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
9} ~=soup into a furry white ball in one corner of 
( the cage, the head, limbs, or other features 
being at such times altogether indistinguish- 
able. The aid of the magnesium flash-light 
was successfully called into service to secure 
the photographic likeness of this animal, here 
reproduced, which was taken while it was en- 
joying its evening meal. 
As previously mentioned, some representa- 
tives of the flying-phalanger group are no 
larger than mice, and are furnished in a similar 
manner with a parachute-like membrane that 
enables them to take abnormally long flying 
leaps, or as it were to sail horizontally through 
the air. The PyGMy FLYING-PHALANGER, whose 
length of body does not exceed 24 inches, is one 
of the most interesting. The tail in this form 
is also adapted for aerial flotation, the long hairs 
that grow upon this appendage being arranged in 
two parallel lines like the vanes of.a feather. Its 
distribution is limited to the south and eastern 
districts of the Australian Continent. There 
are also a number of mouse- and squirrel-like 
- oR; fe. phalangers destitute of the flying-membrane, 
PUsioby acs auilles Kents Fe ZS: which in this respect very closely resemble in 
COMMON GREY OPOSSUM, OR PHALANGER external aspect more typical members of the 
The fur of this species is in great demand for the manufacture of Rodent Order. One form in particular, the 
pees ei STRIPED PHALANGER of New Guinea, decorated 
with broad longitudinal black and white stripes, is singularly suggestive of some of the variously 
striped American squirrels. This interesting island of New Guinea also produces a little PYGMy 
PHALANGER with a feather-like tail which, except for the absence of a parachute or flying- 
membrane, is the very counterpart of the Australian kind. Another species, which in shape, 
size, and more especially with reference to its long, pointed snout, closely resembles a shrew- 
mouse, is found in Western Australia. The tail of this species, known as the LONG-SNOUTED 
PHALANGER, is highly prehensile; and it is also provided with a long, slender, protrusile tongue, 
with which it abstracts the honey from Banksias and other flowers, upon which it customarily feeds. 
The two large phalangers known as the BLACK and GREY or VULPINE OPOSSUMS, which are 
chiefly laid under contribution for the Australian fur supplies, are provided with prehensile 
tails, the under side of the extremity of which grasps the supporting fulcrum and is devoid 
of hair. The adaptation of the tail for use as a fifth hand—as in the New World monkeys — 
is, however, much more conspicuously manifested in what are known to the colonists as the 
RING-TAILED OPOSSUMS, and to zoologists as CRESCENT-TOOTHED PHALANGERS. In these the 
tailtapers to a fine point, and the hair throughout the terminal third of this appendage 
is so fine and short that it at first sight presents the appearance of being entirely naked. 
This terminal third of the tail, moreover, in the greater number of species, contrasts with the 
remaining portion by being white in hue. It occasionally happens, however, that individuals 
occur which are entirely white. One such which came into the writer’s possession was 
obtained from the Bruni Islands, in the Derwent Estuary, Tasmania, and afterwards became 
a great pet with the young people at Government House, Hobart. It is an interesting 
circumstance that the Bruni Islands were noted for the production of albino animals of 
various descriptions, white kangaroos and white emus having also been obtained from this 
locality. Probably some peculiarity of the soil, and its action on the vegetable food the animals 
