NOTES ON SOME OF THE SMALLER MARSUPIALS. 151 



illustrates the locality and the nest itself. In captivity the Pygmy Flying Opossum will feed on sugar, 

 but it very much prefers white ants, which together with the white exudate of certain insects, called 

 manna, probably forms its food in the native state. 



The general colour of the upper parts is soft grew and the under parts white ; but skins from 

 Queensland have a brownish or coppery wash oyer the grey. Although the tail is not prehensile, it 

 is aide to grip on a smooth -surface by the transverse ridges on the under side, which faculty is probably 

 more useful than prehensility would be on the smooth surface of the Eucalypts. 



Fig- 3- 



The Pigmy Opossum, Dromicia nana. (Figs. 3 and 4.) 



This little animal though common in Tasmania, has been rarely recognised in south-eastern 

 Australia. Kretit recorded two specimens from the vicinity of Sydney in 1863, but Thomas 2 states 

 of these : " I have no doubt that both escaped from captivity, as the species has 1 never otherwise 

 been recorded from the mainland." 



We now find them to be numerous in some parts over a wide range. Our first specimen was 

 found by Mrs. E. H. Kater at the Fitzroy Falls, near Moss Vale, in 1914, and many have since been 

 secured for us by Mr. Brand and Mr. Lloyd Cooper from the vicinity of National Park, about 20 miles 

 from Sydney, where the species is quite plentiful. It has also been noticed by the ranger at Kurnell 

 Park, near La Perousc. Mr. Kershaw, Curator of the National Museum, Melbourne, states that 

 specimens are in the collection under his charge from Mordialloc, near Melbourne, Muckleford, near 

 Castlemaine, and from Western Port. Mr. E. R. Waite records it from Jindabine, N.S.W. 



We have found the nests of this species in hollow limbs in three species of Eucalyptus trees, E. 

 squamosa, E. pipereta, and E. haemastoma. They were made principally of Eucalyptus leaves, but were 

 always lined with the leaves of the Christmas Bush, Ceratopetalum, which in some cases had evidently 

 been brought from a considerable distance. 



All the Dromicia from South-eastern Australia we have handled have been small delicate animals 

 when captured, but in captivity they have sometimes become very fat and altered in shape ; the 

 slender animal shown in Fig. 3 became in three months the stout individual on the left of 

 Fig. 4. The specimens we have had from National Park show marked variation in colour and 



2. Thomas, British Museum Cat. Marsupialia, 1888, p. 146. 



