SQUIRREL FLY1NG-PHALANGER. 
33a 
Inches. Lines. 
Inches, ines. 
Length of fore foot, including 
the nails 1 
3 
1 2 
“ of hind foot and nails 
... 1 
1 
1 2 
“ of skull 
. 1 
10 
Width of ditto 
... 1 
2* 
Length of nasal bones 
. 
71 
u of frontal bones 
8.i 
** of palate 
iii 
According to Mr. Gould, the Squirrel Flying-Phalanger is 
very generally dispersed over the whole of New South Wales, 
wliere, in common with other Phalangers, it inhabits the large 
and magnificent gum-trees. Nocturnal in its habits, Mr. 
Gould observes, “it conceals itself during the day in the 
hollows of the trees, where it easily falls a prey to the natives, 
who capture it both for the sake of its flesh and skin, which 
latter, in some parts of the colony, they dispose of to the 
colonists, who occasionally apply it to the same purposes as 
those to which the fur of the Chinchilla, and other animals, 
is applied in Europe. At night it becomes extremely active in 
its motions, but during the day it is sluggish. I observed 
that it prefers those forests which adorn the more open and 
grassy portions of the country, to the thick brushes near the 
coast. By expanding the membrane attached to the sides of 
its body, it has the power of performing enormous leaps, 
and of passing from tree to tree without descending to the 
ground.” 
That these animals have the power of changing their course 
to a certain extent when descending, parachute-like, from a 
height, is evident from the following circumstance related by 
Mr. Broderip 1 . On board a vessel sailing oft" the coast of 
New Holland was a Squirrel Petaurus, which Avas permitted 
to roam about the ship. On one occasion it reached the 
mast-head, and as the sailor who was despatched to bring it 
See Penny Cyclopsedia, article Marsupialia, vol. xvi. p. 461. 
