$02 
PHALAXGI8TA COOKII. 
Wagner, in his continuation of Schreber s great work upon 
Mammalia, likewise associates the animals named P. Cookii 
and P . riverrimt. 
It is certain that amongst the extensive series of these 
animals now in the British Museum collection, there are 
specimens from the continent of Australia which agree in 
their colouring with the P. river rift a , and on the other hand, 
amongst those from Yan Diemen's Land, there are individuals 
which have the same pale grey hue as the P. Cookii of 
Desmarest. 
As in the case of the Vulpine Phalangers of Yan Diemen’s 
Land, the Ring-tailed species in that island varies considera¬ 
bly in its colouring, often assumes a dark, sooty hue, and 
is sometimes white, or cream-coloured, whilst the specimens 
from New South Wales van* but little: from the opposite 
coast, however, I have seen several specimens which were fully 
as dark as any found in Yan Diemen's Land. I will now 
notice some of the varieties of Pitalan(fista Cookii , first 
observing that all the animals of this species which I have 
seen, have a conspicuous white, or yellowish white, fringe of 
hairs around the hinder angle of the ear, and the apical 
portion of the tail white: sometimes less than a quarter of 
the tail is white, and sometimes more than half. The tail is 
often black, or nearly so, on the part immediately preceding 
the white portion, and becomes paler, and coloured like the 
body, at the root. 
With regard to the New South Wales specimens, 1 have 
only to remark, that they almost always agree very closely 
with the description heading this account. Sometimes the 
fur is red-grey, and the rusty red on the flanks and limbs is 
very distinct; in other specimens the upper parts are grey, 
and the legs and sides of the body are but little tinted with 
rust colour ; and in the young the colouring is always rather 
darker than in the adult. The specimens from the Swan 
