T ]{ Ii 



SOUTHERN PETAURUS. 



Generic Character. 



Teeth differing in the different fpeeies^ 

 Body furrounded by a flying-fkin. 



Specific Character, &c* 



PETAURUS blackilh above, whitifh below, 



with the thumbs of the hind-feet rounded. 

 HEPOONA ROO. 



White's Voyage to Botany Bay* 



It may perhaps be doubted whether this animal 

 might not conftitute a genus per fe 3 rather than be re- 

 garded as a fpeeies merely : but as the inftitution of 

 genera from two or three particular circumftances on- 

 ly ; e. g. a peculiarity in the teeth, claws, &c. fre- 

 quently throws much confufion on natural hiftory, and 

 rather tends to embarrafs than initrucT: a ftudent in the. 

 fcience, I have thought it beft to defcribe this animal 

 as a fpeeies of flying-fquirrel, and to feparate the 

 flying-fquirrels from the genus Sciurus, with which 

 Linn^us had conjoined them, and to form them into 

 a genus by the name of Petaurus. 



This perhaps may be thought an unneceffary piece 

 of exa&nefs ; yet there is fomething fo peculiar in the 

 expanded procefles of fkin by which the fiying-fquir- 

 Dd 2 r?Is 



