12 
first montioTied being the very first plialanger ever discovered in 
Australia. In size these ring-tails are smaller than the ordinary 
opossum and more like the cuscos in appeanince. They get their 
popular name from the white or sometimes reddish tip to their long, 
tliin, and extremely prehensile tail, which is always more or less 
curved like a ring. 
THE PLYING PH.VLANQEES. 
These comprise three genera— Fetaurista, Belidtus^ Bactylo-psia, By 
the colonists they ai*o all called “ flying squinxds,*’ but they are truo 
phalangefs, so flying opossum would be nearer the truth, for tho 
squirrel proper is not indigenous to the country. These animals have 
a mcmbi'ane extending fi*om limb to limh, and they have a long bushy 
tail; tlieii* fur is long, loose, and soft. They do not fly, hut, climbing 
to tlie top of a tree, they will then jump off, and spi*eading out their 
legs to the utmost, tho membrane thus acts as a pai'achute and they 
descend in a graceful incline towards the ground; but with tho momen¬ 
tum of their descent they can, if desired, ascend to a considerable 
height again, just as a boy^s kite ascends against the wind. They will 
thus make a “flight” of fi-ora fifty to one hundred yards, according to 
the height of their stailiing point; gencmlly they alight upon tho 
naked bole of a ti-ee in a lino with tho one they started from, for they 
have no power of flapping tlieir “ wings” as do the hats, but they havo 
considerable control over tho direction of their flight and thus aro 
enabled to avoid tho limbs and branches in their way. After alighting 
upon tho trunk of a tree they rapidly ascend to tho top. and again 
jumping off are away to another one before the ohsen'er has time to 
follow their agile movements. They are strictly noctunial and live on 
similar food to the opossums. 
The Great Flying Phalanger, the largest of tho species,- measures 
20 inches from the tip of the nose to the root of tho tail and this tail 
is itself often 22 inches long. The other various species range in size 
downwards to a length of G inches of body with a tail of 9 inches. 
Tho whole of tho species are beautiful creatures, graceful in all their 
movements and at night time tho personification of activity. Tliey are 
fairly numerous in some disti-icts but are only seldom seen by the gen¬ 
eral colonist on account of their nocturnal habits and rapid mevements. 
One species is a marvellous little miniatni'e, being only tho size of a 
common mouse. It is called tlie Aerdbates Pygnia’a, or “ flying 
mouse.” It differs from the larger species in the tail being “ feathered” 
with a web of liair on each side. It is seldom obtained unless dis¬ 
covered asleep in the day time by some wood-spHtter when felling a tree. 
Space will not permit of more than tlie mci'e mention of the genus 
of small rat-like plialangers caUed Dramicvi and the genus Tarsipes, 
the latter of which is not found in Queensland, hut is interesting as it 
is acknowledged to bo one of the links connecting tlie marsupialia 
with tho monotremata. 
THE KOALA, OR NATIVE BEAR {Phascolarctos Cinereus). 
The immigrant will not have been long in tho wooded counti-y 
of the Queensland mountain and coiist districts before ho makes 
