11 
for no matter what noise is made they seldom attempt to move from 
the biniich they are on, or to take advanta^ of any slieltenng- hole. 
So muscular are they that when shot from the top of a tree ev'en 90 
feet high, if only slightly wounded, the fall has not the slightest effect 
upon them, and they will immediately run and ascend again. They 
can and will bite 8evei*ely when wounded if cai*clcssly taken bold of. 
The tail is strongly prehensile, and it is as ciisy for the animals to 
hang by it wlien curled round a branch as it is foi* others to hold on 
by their feet. In size the common opossum is about tliat of a 
domestic cat, but some of the Queensland species are rather smaller. 
In colour the vulpine opossum is an ashy grey, but the under[)arts of 
the body ai’e yellowish, and old males have a rusty-coloured nock and 
breast; the fur is long and woolly; the tail is long, bushy with black 
bail’, strongly prehensile, and it is naked underneath. The female 
has a pouch similar to the kangaroo; there are four teats in it, but she 
seldom has more than one or two young at a time. Their food is A’^aried, 
but it is pnncipally loaves, gmss, and fruit; still, in confhiemont, the 
common opossum will iwlily eat meat, small birds, bread, and drink 
milk greedily. One that the writer once kept as a pet would not 
refuse beer when offered to it. The peculiarity of the phalaugor ti-ibo 
is that the hind foot have an opposable prehensile nailless thumb, and 
four toes, the two inner ones being small and united by a membrane. 
The fore feet have the usual five sti'ongly-claAved toes. Tlie incisor 
teeth still sliow the same peculianty of the macropodidco in being six 
above avS opposed to only two in the loAver jaw ; the canines are always 
present. These animals are the princijial food of the aboriginal 
native, Avho shows great skill in detecting by the claw-scmtches on 
the bark Avhctlier the animal is asleep in the hollows of the tree. If 
so, then by a method of cutting notches with a stone tomahawk in the 
bark of the tree, alternatiiig from side to side but distaut each one 
about two feet higher than the other, the aboriginal will scale the 
stmightest and biggest gum tree by using these notches for the 
pur|>oso of i)lacing his big toe in them They thus act as stci)a, and 
surely the black climbs the tree. He then cuts a hole 
with his tomahawk just over the part of the branch whore the opos¬ 
sum IS sleeping, pulls it out by the tail and stunning it agjiiust the 
bmuch throws it to the ground. The opossum is bat seldom eaten by 
the settlor as its strong eucalyptus flavour is not pleasant to a 
European palate. 
the CUSCOS, ringtails (fjenus Cuscos, <^c.) 
Besides the few species of the phalangers commonly called opossums 
there is a genus peculiar to tropical Australia which, differs somewhat 
from the typical phalanger. This is called Ctiscos. The tail has only 
the basal portion covered Avith hair; the cal's are shoi*t and almost 
hidden by the fur of tlie head; the eyes with a vertical pupil. In 
size they are about the same as the common phalanger and their 
habits are identical. There are several species of them, some having 
only recently been discovered in the northern scrubs. Then there are 
also the Bing-tailed opossums (P. Cookii, p. \*iA'errina, and others), the 
A 4 
