A numerous group of animals, varying from the size of a mouse to that of a large cat, arboreal in their habits, and abundantly distributed throughout the Australian region. The members of this group are the typical representatives of the family, and are commonly known to the colonists as Opossums. _Phalanger._[55]—The typical genus _Phalanger_ (_Cuscus_) presents the following characters. No flying membrane; size large or medium, and build stout and clumsy; fur thick and woolly. Ears short or medium, hairy externally, and in some cases also internally. Toes of fore feet subequal, their relative lengths in the order 4, 3, 5, 2, 1. Claws long, stout, and curved. Soles of feet naked and striated, with large ill-defined pads. Tail stout and markedly prehensile, with the proximal half furred like the body, and the terminal portion entirely naked. Four mammæ. Skull (Fig. 47) stout and strong, with large vacuities in the hinder half of the palate, and the auditory bullæ thick and inflated. Dentition usually _i_ ³⁄₂, _c_ ¹⁄₀, _p_ ³⁄₃, _m_ ⁴⁄₄. First upper incisor with nearly circular section, or only slightly flattened in front; canine more or less closely approximated to third incisor (which is very small), and situated partly in front of the suture between the premaxilla and maxilla. Fourth premolar large, secant, and placed obliquely to line of molars. Molars four-cusped, with the inner cusps of the upper ones crescentoid, and imperfect transverse ridges connecting each pair of cusps. [Illustration: FIG. 47.—Left lateral view of skull of Gray Cuscus (_Phalanger orientalis_). After Peters.] The Cuscuses are curious sleepy-looking animals, inhabiting the various islands of the East Indian Archipelago as far west as Celebes, and being the only Marsupials found west of New Guinea. As already noted, it was a member of this genus, the Gray Cuscus (_P. orientalis_), a native of Amboyna, Timor, and the neighbouring islands, which was the first Australasian Marsupial known to European naturalists. There are altogether five species known, all of about the size of a large cat; their habits resemble those of other Phalangers, except that they are said to be somewhat more carnivorous.