a streamer, as they launch themselves on their bold and seemingly perilous leaps.
This species, whose fur is exquisitely soft and full, is of a delicate grey colour, with a line down the back, and the borders of the lateral membranes, dark brown. It is a native of New South Wales, and is said to be abundant at the foot of the Blue Mountains. The skins are sent to this country as an article of commerce.
Genus Phascolarctos. (Desm.)
This genus, of which only a single species has been recognised, differs but slightly from Phalangista in its dentition and anatomy; but its superior size, its clumsy form and gait, its shaggy ears, and the absence of a tail, render it distinguishable at a glance from every other member of this Family. It is a robust animal, with thick limbs and powerful claws; the head is large and round, with a blunt muzzle; the ears are broad, and stand out from the sides of the head, in a singular manner; they are clothed with long, bushy fur. The feet have each five toes, armed with large, sharp, curved claws: the fore-feet have this peculiarity, that the innermost two toes are a pair by themselves, as it were two thumbs, being opposible to the other three.
The only known species is the Koala, or Native Bear of the colonists (Phascolarctos fuscus, Desm.), which is a little more than two feet in length, covered with a thick compact wool, of an ashy-grey colour, patched with white on the hinder parts. It is said to resemble a bear, in its gait upon the ground, and in its mode of climbing. The some-
