. Natural history. Zoology. MAMMALIAâORDER XI. â Fig. 105.âSpotted Cnscns {Phalanger maculatua). teats are borne by the female. Ousouses are slow and sleepy animals, completely arboreal and mainly herbivorous in their habits, passing the day curled up asleep among the densest foliage of forest trees, and only be- coming active as the shades of evening approach. A great amount of varia- tion obtains in the coloration of the different sexes and individuals of the same species, while there is frequently some difference in the teeth. ^\ hereaa in the black cuscus of Celebes (P. ursinu
. Natural history. Zoology. MAMMALIAâORDER XI. â Fig. 105.âSpotted Cnscns {Phalanger maculatua). teats are borne by the female. Ousouses are slow and sleepy animals, completely arboreal and mainly herbivorous in their habits, passing the day curled up asleep among the densest foliage of forest trees, and only be- coming active as the shades of evening approach. A great amount of varia- tion obtains in the coloration of the different sexes and individuals of the same species, while there is frequently some difference in the teeth. ^\ hereaa in the black cuscus of Celebes (P. ursinus) both sexes are of a uniformly dark blackisb brown colour; in the widely distributed spotted cuscus (P. maculatus) the sexes are generally different, and the coloration takes the form of various combinations of white, rufous, and black, the females being generally grey and black, while the smaller males are usually spotted, although occasionally they resemble an ordinary grey female, save for a few indistinct whitish spots on the flanks and back. Nearly allied to the cuscuses are the true phalangers (Trichosurus)â the opossums of the colonistsâof which the two species are restricted to the Australian mainland and Tasmania. These also are large, stoutly-built cat- like animals, with thick, woolly fur, and short or medium ears. The front toes may be-distinguished from those of the cuscuses in that relative lengths follow the order 4, 3, 2, 5, 1; the claws being large and strong, and the sales of the hind-feet densely haired beneath the heel, but elsewhere naked, and furnished with low, rounded, ill-defined pads. In the powerful pre- hensile tail the terminal third or half is bare inferiorly, and the extreme tip devoid of hair all round. A peculiar gland is situated in the centre of the chest. Among the teeth, the molars have four cusps, tending to unite into a pair of transverse ridges ; and the last pre-molar, which closely approximates to the corresponding tooth of Mypsi
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