Peculiar Marsupials

Of Papua

From Our Own Correspondent PT. MORESBY, January 17.

BY the outgoing Macdhui two strange passengers were booked to travel to Sydney—a tree-climbing kangaroo and a striped phalanger from the district behind Abau, collected by the Government Anthro pologist, Mr. F. E. Williams, for Professor Wood Jones, of the Melbourne University.

Unfortunately, the kangaroo died two days before the vessel sailed, and the phalanger travelled alone.

Professor Wood Jones has been seeking live members of these marsupials for some years. The tree-climbing kangaroo is not usually encountered in Papua, though varieties of cuscus similar to the striped phalanger are known to most planters and settlers.

Phalanger is a book name applied to the more typical representatives of the group of diprotodont marsupial mammals, includ ing the cuscus of the Moluccas, Celebes, New Guinea, Solomons, and the so-called opossums of Australia. They are ap parently the size of a large squirrel and are easily recognised by the yellow and black striping of the fur. One species is said to be exclusively Papuan, namely, that which has the fourth toe more elongated than others.

Phalangers generally are small and woolly coated animals with long, powerful, prehensible tails and large claws. In the day they seem to be sleepy and dull, but are alert at night. They live mostly upon fruit, leaves and blossoms, but a few feed entirely upon insects, while others devour birds and small mammals.