PHALAKGIBTA. 
283 
that it is by such means the numerous specimens were pro¬ 
cured which were daily offered to them by the natives. The 
Pholangers were brought alive, but with the legs broken, and 
a pieee of wood thrust into the mouth to prevent their 
biting 1 . The natives arc oxtremely fond of the flesh of these 
animals, which is very fat, and they cook the Phalaugers 
entire (removing only the intestines) upon peat coals. The 
teeth of the animal are strung together by the natives to 
form ornaments for their war implements, as well as to adorn 
their persons. 
Section 2. Trichosurus. 
Trichosurus. Lesson, Diet. Cl. d'llist. Nat. U xiii. p. 333. 1826. 
Phalangistaproper of Temminck, Lesson, Gray, and some other authors. 
Tail densely clothed with fur, with the exception of a part of the. 
under surface, commencing at the point, and more or less 
extended towards the root of the tail : ears distinct, usually 
long ; eyes with the pupil round : fore feet normal (j. c. with 
no marked separation of the two inner from the three outer 
toes) : ccecum very long 2 . 
The species of this section inhabit Australia : their fur is 
longer and less dense than that of the Plialangers of the 
islands north of Australia. In specimens of P. vulj)ina, 
living in the menagerie of the Zoological Society, I observed 
that the pupil of the eye was round, and not narrow, and 
nearly vertical, as in the species of the Guscus section ; hut I 
1 In so hot a climate, were animals not brought alive to the market, they 
would too soon become unfit for fcod. 
: In Phalangista vulpina the ccecum was found to be 25 inches in length, 
in an animal measuring 19 inches; Mr. Martin gives 16£ inches as the length 
of the coecum of a specimen, the anatomy of which he describes in the Proceed¬ 
ings of the Zoological Society for 1836— the animal measuring 20, inches 
from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail. 
