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PETAURUS. 
Genus, Petaurus. 
Pelaurus. Shaw, Naturalists’ Miscellany, PI. 60. 1791. 
44 Desm., Nouv. Diet. <1’I list. Nat. tom. xxv. p. 400. 1818. 
Petaurista. Desm., Mammalogie, Part 1, p. 268. 1820. 
Phalangista. Illiger, Prod. Syst. Mamm., &e., p. 78. 1811. 
Phalangistido! having a membrane extended from the fore to the 
hind leg, and filling the interspace of these legs; the tail 
well clothed with hair throughout, and generally very long. 
The Petauri, or Flying Phalangers, in general appearance 
greatly resemble the Flying-Squirrels, having, like those 
animals, a membrane extended between the fore and hind 
legs, and which serves, to a certain extent, to sustain the 
animal in the air, when descending from a height, after the 
manner of a parachute. In some Petauri the tail is bushy 
and cylindrical like the large Flying-Squirrels (Pferouiys) 
of India and the Indian Islands; in others (the smaller 
species) the tail is distichous, and in this respect they 
resemble small fiving-squirrels of the sub-genus Sciur opt eras. 
The dentition of some of the Flying Phalangers greatly 
resembles that of certain species of Phalangista, and M. F. 
Cuvier, disregarding the external peculiarities presented by 
the Petauri , associates them with the true Phalangers, of 
which ho forms two sections, in each of which are species 
possessing the flying membrane, and others destitute of this 
appendage: for these sections he retains the names Petaurus 
and Phalangista. In the latter group M. Cuvier associates 
the animals of the Cuscus section together with the Phal. 
eutpina, and the Petaurus sciureas of authors, and in the 
former group he arranges the Phal. Cookii , the Petaurus 
iaguanuiiles , and the P. macroura. With regard to the 
