Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/284

274 {{c|{{sc|Genus Phalangista. (Cuv.) }} The Phalangers are distinguished by having the head rather short; the ears hairy; the fur woolly and short; the tail long, prehensile, sometimes naked at the extremity; the skin of the sides not dilated between the limbs. The arrangement of the teeth is as follows; inc. $6⁄2$; can. $1—1⁄0—0$; false mol. $1—1⁄1—1$; mol. $4—4⁄4—4$; = 30: these may be called the constant teeth, but in several species, there are additional small molars, sometimes resembling canines, varying in number from one to three in each jaw.

Notwithstanding the security afforded them by a prehensile tail, the Phalangers are slow and cautious in their motions among the branches. If they suspect themselves to be observed, they are said to suspend themselves by the tail to a branch, and hang with the head downwards, mo- tionless, as if dead; and this artifice is’ the less improbable, from what we know of the American Opossum’s analogous stratagem. It is reported, indeed, that if a man continue to watch one thus suspended, it will continue to hang till the muscles of the tail, no longer able to sustain the weight, relax from extreme fatigue, and the creature drops to the ground.

The flesh of these animals is of delicate flavour; and the fur is highly prized for its thickness and softness; during life, they diffuse an unpleasant odour, like many other marsupial animals.

A very pretty and minute species, the Dormouse Phalanger, (Phalangista gliriformis, {{sc|Bell}}) from New Holland, we select for illustration, on