Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 21 November 1895, Page 3

Notes and Events.

Additions are made every day to the London Zoological Gardens. In a Home paper in which announcements are made of fresh arrivals it is difficult to distinguish who and what these may be. For instance the Other day 2 Vulphine Phalangera were received in the gardens! After research we find we ought to have known all about the3e as "Phalangers are opoisum like quadrupeds with a long prehensile tail, of arboreal habits, frugivorous and insectivorous, represented in abundance in the whole Australian region by numerous species and several genders." They have a thick woolly coat, and average about the size of a cat, though some are much smaller. The phalangers proper have no paraobate; others, known wpetmiruta, or flying phalangers, are provided with a flying membrane. The vulpine phalanger has the tail almost entirely hairy, and combining to some extent the aspects of a squirrel and a fox. We mention these facts as a knowledge of them would be extremely handy when meeting a phalanger on one's walks abroad. A gallinule ? Under another name they are much better known, being mud-hens or water-hens. There are about 80 species inhabiting most parts of the world.