NORTH AUSTRALIAN MAMMALIA. 205 



The eye has in the darkness a strong glow like a flashing 

 ruby, and death is accompanied by a strong dilatation of the 

 vertical pupil. 



In captivity it very soon becomes familiar with the man who 

 feeds it, but soon dies when removed from its native land, with 

 the loss of its usual food, and the climatic conditions of the 

 country where it was born. 



Trichosurus vulpecula. " Vie " ; " Uia " ; " Uidda." 



Being strongly pursued by the aborigines and easily caught, 

 this species is not numerous in any portion of Arnhem Land. 

 It is nearly everywhere to be found, but the traveller may search 

 the moonlit woods night after night without seeing a single 

 animal, and in no locality do its numbers in any way approach 

 those of the southern colonised parts of the continent. The 

 brown variety was only found in the jungle around the river 

 Daly, and all the specimens shot or captured in the open 

 Eucalyptus forest were of the common bluish grey colour. In 

 the vicinity of Roebuck Bay, Western Australia, the species was 

 occasionally met with, and in all the specimens I examined the 

 fur was of the latter colour. 



The Trichosurus vulpecula breeds in the north all the year 

 round, and only one young is found in the pouch of the female. 



On leaving the pouch of the mother animal the fur of a juvenile 

 specimen has a strong grassy green tinge, which gradually fades, 

 and after two or three weeks gives place to the general colouring 

 of the adult. 



Captured in infancy, it is, like most marsupials, easily tamed, 

 and after a time gets very attached to man. 



They eat almost any vegetable, from a grass-root to the fruit 

 of the tallest Eucalyptus, and seem to require a good supply of 

 water. In captivity they will drink at least once a day, generally 

 a little after sundown, and on lagoons and rivers their tracks are 

 generally seen at the water's edge. 



Petaurus breviceps. " Lambalk." 



The Little Flying Squirrel is found all over Arnhem Land, 

 but owing to its small size and mode of hiding in the hollow 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. I., May, 1897. q 



