Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume II Part 40

Number 28. Perameles fusciventer, Gray.

Brown, yellow grizelled; tail above blackish, beneath grey; head short, conical; belly grey brown, with broad rufous channelled hairs. This species is like P. obesula in colour, but the head is shorter, and the belly of that species is white, with white bristles.

Number 37. Dromicia nana.

The dent.i.tion and the peculiar form and character of the tail of this species at once point out that it should const.i.tute a distinct genus from the other Phalangers, from which it differs in many of its habits.

Number 38. Hepoona cookii.

Specimens from the same locality differ from one another in the extent of the white on the tail, in the darkness of the colour of the fur, and in the limbs and sides of the body being of the colour of the back, or more or less rufous. There are either five or six species, or only one.

Number 39.

I have retained the name of Petaurista for the flying Phalangers with hairy ears, as Dr. Shaw's Didelphis petaurus is evidently the same as P.

flaviventer, and has naked ears, like the other species, and his name Petaurus should be used rather than Mr. Waterhouse's Belideus for this genus.

Number 40.

Petaurista leucogaster, may only be a variety of P. taguanoides.

Number 42. Petaurus macrourus.

This species is only known from the figures of Dr. Shaw. They have a specimen of a young Petaurista taguanoides, under this name, in the Paris Museum.

Number 43. Petaurus breviceps.

This is probably the species called P. peronii in Mr. G. Bennett's catalogue of the Australian Museum. It may also be M. Desmarest's; if this is so, the latter name will have to be adopted, and the one first used erased from the list.

Number 47.

The Macropi with hairy m.u.f.fles are found in gra.s.sy places, while the Halmaturi are confined to the scrubs; and the Petrogalae, or Rock-Kangaroos, to the rocky districts; the latter, like Bettongia, sit with their tail between the legs. Mr. Gould informs me the animals of the latter genus also use their tails for the purpose of carrying the gra.s.s to their nests. The tree Kangaroos of New Guinea have a tail somewhat like a squirrel. These differences of habit show the propriety of dividing this group of animals into genera.

Number 48. Macropus laniger.

This name must be rejected as the animal is not wool-bearing. The skin in the Paris Museum is made up with the skin of a sheep. M. Desmarest's description of the female M. rufogriseus in the New Dictionary, very nearly agrees with this species, but Mr. Gould is inclined to consider the specimen he was shown for that species in the Paris Museum was M.

major.

Number 57. Halmaturus elegans.

The description of Mr. Lambert is so short that it has. .h.i.therto been considered impossible to determine it with accuracy; but on comparing the coloured plate which is bound up with Sir Joseph Banks' copy of the volume of the Transactions containing the paper, now in the Museum Library, with the specimens of kangaroos in the Museum collection, I have very little doubt of its being intended for one which Mr. Gould considers as identical with M. ruficollis of M. Desmarest. M. Desmarest's animal is said to come from King's Island, in Ba.s.s Strait, while Mr. Gould's animal, like the one Mr. Lambert described, is from New South Wales. Mr.

Gunn remarks that H. billardieri is common in the locality indicated by M. Desmarest.

Number 67. Petrogale brachyotis.

This species was discovered by Captain G. Grey, in his expedition, and the specimens he collected he gave to Mr. Gould, who described them, and is now about to figure them in his forthcoming monograph of the species of kangaroos: a work which will be as far superior to any other published on Mammalia in beauty of design and accuracy in the execution of the plates as his work on Birds has been to any that has. .h.i.therto appeared either in England or on the Continent. The specimens are now in the collection of the British Museum.

Number 84. Mus lutreola.

Back black and yellowish grizelled, with longer black hairs; sides yellowish grey, beneath grey lead colour, under fur lead colour; ears with scattered short adpressed hairs; whiskers black; front teeth yellow; tail with short black adpressed bristles; length of body and head 7, tail 4, hind-feet 1 1-4 inches. The water-rat of the South Australian Colonist. Inhabits South Australia, River Torrens, Ba.s.s Strait, New South Wales; Musquito Islands and Macdonald's River, Van Diemen's Land, Tasman's Peninsula. J. Gould, Esquire.

Number 85. Mus greyii, Gray.

Fur brown, with close long slender pale-tipped black hairs; sides yellowish-brown; throat and beneath yellowish; feet whiteish; ears nearly naked, with close-pressed short greyish hairs; tail with close-pressed brown hairs. Variety; belly rather more greyish-white. Inhabits South Australia, June. Length, body and head 6, tail 4 3/4, hind-feet 1 1/12 of an inch.

Number 86. Mus adelaidensis.

Fur soft, brown, with scattered rather longer black tipped hairs, beneath pale grey brown; the under fur lead coloured; whiskers black; ears moderate, covered with short close-pressed hairs; tail elongate, brown; cutting teeth pale yellow, compressed; body and head 3, tail 3 inches, hind-feet 8-12. Inhabits South Australia. J. Gould, Esquire.

In examining the Geographical distribution of the Genera, as exhibited in the foregoing table, as far as our present knowledge of these animals extends we may state that the genera Ch.o.e.ropus, Acrobates, Petaurista, Lagorchestes, Phascolarctos, Hapalotis, and Pseudomys, are peculiar to New South Wales. The genus Petaurus is also found in New South Wales, but not in the Island of Van Diemen's Land and the rest of the continent, but one of the species living there is also said to be an inhabitant of Norfolk Island, where it may probably have been introduced.

The species of the genera Petrogale and Bettongia are common to New South Wales, South Australia, and the North-west Coast; but they are not found in Van Diemen's Land, and the genus Myrmecobius appears to be peculiar to Western Australia, for it is not by any means certain that the red shrew-mouse discovered in Australia Felix by Sir T. Mitch.e.l.l belongs to this genus.

The Genera Thylacinus, Diabolus, and Dromicia, are peculiar to Van Diemen's Land.

The species of the genera Dasyurus and Perameles are very abundant in Van Diemen's Land, but they have also representatives which are found in New Holland.

The species of the genera Nyctophilus, Phalangista, Hepoona, Phascogale, Macropus, Halmaturus, Hypsiprymnus, and Hydromys, appear to be common to all parts of the continent, and also to Van Diemen's Land.

The genera Echidna and Ornithorhynchus are found in New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, but I have not heard of their having been discovered in the Western or Southern parts of the continent of Australia.

There are some of the genera of the non-Marsupial animals, as Rhinolophus and Pteropus, which are common to various parts of Australia and the different parts of the Old World, and others, as Canis, Mus, Scotophilus, and Molossus, which are common to it and to both Hemispheres. Two Marsupial genera, Halmaturus and Perameles, have species found in New Guinea, but most probably, when they have been more carefully examined, they will be found to form a peculiar genus, allied to the Australian animals, as is the case with the tree-kangaroos (Dendrolegus) and the Phalangers (Cuscus) of that country. We have a specimen of the Halmaturus in the British Museum, from the Leyden collection, but like many of the specimens in that collection, where the zoological specimens are made subservient to the anatomical predilections of the conservator, it has no skull, and false claws, which renders it impossible for me to define its characters. The tail has rings of scales under the hair, but this is also the case with most Halmaturi.

Before proceeding to the consideration of the distribution of the species, over the different districts of Australasia, it may be remarked that this is a subject surrounded with considerable difficulty, as different naturalists do not always apply the same test to determine the distinction of the species, some considering the differences found in the specimens from different localities, as merely local varieties, and others regarding them as distinct; and others again declaring that several specimens, which cabinet naturalists are in the habit of regarding as only accidental varieties from the examination of the skins, are quite distinct when they are observed alive in their native habitat.

In the preceding list, when all the specimens I have seen from a particular habitat have a similar and peculiar character, I have considered them as species; on the contrary when the specimens from the same locality offer variations among themselves, as in those of the genus Hepoona, where the extent of the whiteness on the tail, and the variation in the colour of the body appear to differ in the specimens from the same place, I have regarded them as belonging to the same species, believing it to be a variable species which has an extensive range.

From the Table already given it appears that, of the species found on the Australian Continent, 71 are confined to it, 12 common to it and Van Diemen's Land, and one common to it and Norfolk Island; while of the 24 species found on Van Diemen's Land, 11 are found in it alone.

The species common to the Australian Continent and Van Diemen's Land, are:

2. Nyctophilus geoffroyii.

4. Scotophilus gouldii.

5. Scotophilus australis.

15. Dasyurus viverrinus.

27. Perameles obesula.

32. Phalangista vulpina.

38. Hepoona cookii.

70. Hypsiprymnus minor.

81. Hydromys chrysogaster.

84. Mus lutreola.