SPECIES OF MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC AEEA 25 be used to insert into worm-holes or bees' nests in trees to dislodgeinsect food.
Mouse Possums, Pygmy Possums, Dormouse Phalangers (Eudromicia and allies) are tiny, mouse-like possums with long, nearly bare, prehensile tails. The color is some shade of brown, with underparts white. The over-all length is eight to ten inches ; tail about five inches. These little animals are nocturnal, feeding on insects and fruit. Several species are known in Australia but only one in New Guinea.
The Feather-tailed Mouse Possum (Distoechurus), found only in New Guinea, is a rare animal, nearly equal in size but not closely related to Eudromicia. The tail is fringed with a row of long hairs on each side which give it a feather-like appearance.
The Cuscuses (Phalanger) are slow-moving, tree-living, prehensile-tailed, monkey-like marsupials, with small ears almost buried in the dense fur. Several main types occur: the gray or striped cuscuses, which have black, reddish, and brown varieties, the ursine or blackish cuscus of Celebes, and the spotted cuscus, in which the male only is spotted. The pouch opens forward. One or two young occupy it at a time. The cuscuses are all vegetarians. They are chiefly nocturnal and spend the day concealed in masses of vines or foliage or in hollow trees.
The Gray Cuscuses (Phalanger orient alis) are represented all over New Guinea and the adjoining islands including the Solomons. Representatives are known on the Moluccas and on Celebes, as well as on Wetar and Timor. In the mountains of New Guinea a species (P. vestitus) with long silky fur is known. The length is generally thirty to thirty-six inches, of which fourteen to sixteen inches are tail.
The Bear Cuscus {Phalanger ur sinus) is a large brownish black species, the hairs plentifully grizzled with white, which is found on Celebes, Salayer, and Talaut Islands. Its actions are sluggish.
26 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WORLD The Spotted Cuscus (Phalanger maculatus) is one of those rare kinds of animals in which the color pattern of the male is sharply different from that of the female. In New Guinea, north of the mountains, the general colors are brown and white, the males having the brown back strongly spotted with white, the females with the back unspotted. South of the mountains Fig. 11 — Spotted Cuscus (male) males have in addition blackish brown spots on the rump ; the females have a blackish rump, more or less silvered with white. In Queensland the males of the local race are predominantly white with gray spots. The females are gray above and white beneath. The total length is three and one-half feet, of which almost half is tail. The spotted cuscuses are present also in New Britain and on the Admiralty Islands.
The Ring-tails {Pseudocheirus, Petropseudes) are a large group of cuscus-like marsupials found in both Australia and
SPECIES OF MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC AREA 27 New Guinea but not on the islands. They have dense, rather soft hair, strongly prehensile tails (hence the common name), and the thumb and forefinger together are opposable against the other three digits. Characters of their teeth separate them sharply from the true cuscuses and indicate distant relationship to the koala or native bear. All have vegetarian diets and all but Petropseudes live in rain forest, where they are strictly arboreal. Five or six very distinct species occur in New Guinea, and nearly as many more in eastern Australia. The size, dependent upon the species, varies from that of a red squirrel to that of a cat.
The Rock-haunting Ring-tail {Petropseudes dahli) of the Northern Territory of Australia is characterized by its short tail, which barely equals half the length of head and body which is eighteen inches.
The Flying Phalangers {Petaurus, Acrobates, Schoinohates), locally called flying squirrels, are among the most interesting and delightful of the Australian pouched animals. All are built on the plan of the American flying squirrel, with broad membranes attached to front and hind limbs by means of which they glide downward from tree to tree. It is interesting to note that this type of locomotion has developed twice independently in the marsupials, since Petaurus and Acrohates are relatives of possums and cuscuses, while Schoinohates, the largest of the flying phalangers, nearly a yard in length, is allied to the ring-tails and koala. All have forward-opening pouches, are nocturnal, and eat fruit and insects. The Lesser Flying Phalanger {Petaurus hreviceps and allies) is a brownish gray, soft-furred animal with white or buffy underparts. The size is about fifteen inches, including the eightinch tail. It is found throughout New Guinea and on New Britain, Aru, and the Gilolo group of islands. In Australia it is represented by very similar forms.
The Yellow-bellied Flying Phalanger {Petaurus australis) is considerably larger. The color is dark brownish gray above,
28 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WORLD Fig. 12 — Lesser Flying Ph danger yellowish white beneath. The length is almost thirty inches, of which seventeen inches are tail. It is found in eastern Australia from southern Queensland to Victoria.
The Pygmy Flying Phalanger (Acrobat es) is a tiny species, grayish above, white beneath. The length is about six inches, nearly half of which is tail. It is distributed from Queensland to Victoria.
The Greater Flying Phalanger (Schoinohates) has very long, soft fur. The ears are large and naked, and the tip of the tail prehensile. In the present species the flying membrane is attached to the elbow, not to the wrist, as in those described before. In color it is dark ashy gray above, varying from blackish to quite pale gray; underparts are whitish. The length is thirty-six inches, including the twenty-inch tail. Its range is Queensland to Victoria.
SPECIES OF MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC AREA 29 The Koala or "Native Bear" (Phascolarctos), one of the favorite Australian mammals in zoological gardens or in pictures, appears bear-like only because of its chunky build and tailless condition. The fur is dense, woolly, and gray in color. Fig. IS— Koala The ears are short, limp, heavily furred, and the hands agree with those of the ring-tails in having the index finger together with the thumb opposable against the other fingers. The head and body are thirty to thirty-two inches long. These rather lumbering tree-climbers have the ability to spring from one nearly upright branch to another vertical
30 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WORLD branch several feet away. The food is restricted to certain types of eucalyptus leaves, notably those of gray and blue gum trees in Queensland and New South Wales and the manna gum in Victoria. A single young one is born at a time which, after developing in the backward-opening pouch, commonly rides on the mother's back. The koala is distributed from Queensland to Victoria, in parts now very scarce or extinct. The Honey Possum (Tarsipes), a tiny creature distantly related to the mouse possums, has a long muzzle, a greatly extensible tongue, and a long tail with prehensile tip. The general color is chestnut-brown on the sides, and on the back there are three blackish longitudinal stripes separated from each other by buffy whitish stripes. The well-developed pouch contains four nipples ; the number of young carried therein is from one to four. The total length is about seven inches ; tail, about four inches. The honey possum, which has weak teeth, feeds on the nectar and pollen of flowers and small insects. The animals are nocturnal climbers ; they may be gregarious, a number living together in one hole. They are found only in southwestern Australia.
The Wombats. Family Vombatid^ In this small family are contained the marsupial counterpart of our woodchucks. Although descended probably from treedwelling ancestors they have acquired many characters that fit them for burrowing. The bodies are thick and heavily muscular, the limbs powerful, the claws heavy and strong, but the tail is a mere rudiment. The length of head and body is about forty inches. The pouch contains only two nipples ; usually only one young one is born. These nocturnal animals feed upon vegetation—grasses, roots, bulbs, and fungi. Although wombat burrows up to one hundred feet long have been measured, most are much shorter.
Four species of rather similar appearance are known, belonging to three genera (Vombatus, Lasiorhinus, Wombatula).
SPECIES OF MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC AREA 31 Fig. 14 — Wombat Their range includes only Australia and Tasmania; in many parts of the former, wombats are now extinct. Kangaroos and Wallabies. Family Macropodid^ The kangaroo family is marked by the long hind feet adapted for two-legged hopping and leaping, the long stout tail generally used as a prop, single lower incisor tooth separated by a considerable space from the cheek-teeth. Pouches open forward, and a single young one or "joey" is as a rule nursed at a time. Almost all are plant-eaters.
The largest kangaroos belong to the genus Macropus. Many of the species are becoming rare. The visitor to Australia will probably see only some of the many kinds of medium-sized or small species, collectively termed wallabies. The Red and Gray Kangaroos. (Macropus rufa and M. major) are the two best known of the large kangaroos. The red kangaroos commonly show a grayish or "blue" phase, thus somewhat resembling the true gray kangaroo, but may be distinguished by the strongly defined black whisker-mark on each side of the nostrils, which is edged beneath with white. The red
32 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WORLD kangaroos are restricted to the inland plains of New South Wales but they had formerly a far wider range. The gray kangaroo or forester inhabits open forests and brush from northern Queensland to South Australia, and distinct races appear in southwestern Australia and in Tasmania. A third type of large kangaroo, the Wallaroos or Antilopine Kangaroos (Osphranter) which haunt rocky places, have relatively shorter, stockier limbs than have Macropus. The tip of the muzzle between the nostrils is hairless (in Macropus it is more or less hairy). A good many kinds of wallaroos have been distinguished, and both red and gray kinds exist among them. The total length may reach eight feet, of which three feet make up the length of the tail. The typical wallaroo ranged originally from Queensland to Victoria; the antilope wallaroo, its close relative, lives in the Northern Territory of Australia. Still another race of wallaroo occurs in the southwest of Australia.
The wallabies include a far wider assortment of animals than do the large kangaroos. They include four general groups of animals of typical kangaroo appearance: sand wallabies, pademelons, rock wallabies, and hare wallabies. Sand or Agile Wallabies (Wallabia) and allies include some seven species, among which may be mentioned the pretty-face, black-tailed, red-necked, black-gloved, and agile wallabies. These names relate to their distinctive characters and serve fairly well to distinguish them. A white hip-stripe is seen in several. One, the agile wallaby, is known beyond Australia ; in southern New Guinea and on the savannas about Port Moresby a race of this wallaby is common. The size is variable, but generally the over-all length is about five feet, of which the tail measures two and one-half feet.
The Pademelons or Scrub Wallabies (Thylogale, Setonix) are generally smaller than the wallabies of the "agile" group. Many of the Australian forms are reddish brown or chestnut on the nape and hind legs, while distinct offshoots found in