PETAURUS IIREVICEPS. 
down, approached, it made a spring from aloft to avoid him. 
At this moment the ship gave a heavy lurch, which, if the 
original direction of the little creature's course had been 
continued, must have plunged it into the sea. All who 
witnessed the scene were in pain for its safety ; hut it suddenly 
appeared to check itself, and so to modify its career that it 
alighted safely on the deck. 
Our little animal is figured and described in Phillip’s Voyage 
to Botany Bay, under the name of Norfolk Island Flying- 
Squirrel, but whether the animal is really found in that island, 
so remote from the coast of Australia, the author does not 
inform us. Possibly it may have been introduced there by the 
shipping. 
PETAURUS ( Belideus ) BREVICEPS. 
Short-headed Flying-Phalanger. 
Petaurus ( Belideus ) brer i ceps. Water house, Proceedings of the Zoological 
Society for Nov. 1838, Part G, p. 152; Marsupinlia (Vol. xi. in 
Naturalists' Library), p. 290, PJ. 29. 
Tail long and cylindrical: general colour of the upper parts of 
the body ashy grey ; a black stripe commencing near the 
tip of the muzzle, rims along the back ; ears black ex¬ 
ternally at tlie base, and white at the posterior angles ; 
flank membrane blackish above, hut edged with white; under 
parts of head aud body, white: tail black at the tip. 
Inhabits New South Wales. 
In colouring this animal greatly resembles the Petaurus 
set ureus ; it is, however, of a smaller size, and always lias a 
long cylindrical tail : the size and proportions of its skull 
also difler. The head is short, the ears moderate, almost 
naked, being very sparingly furnished with dusky hairs, ex¬ 
cepting at the base externally, where they are covered with fur 
