OCR Text |
Show 1897.] FROM NORTH AUSTRALIA. 329 Smallest specimen : length 65 ; breadth 42 m m . Two younger specimens, length of the skull in both 60 mm., are just in the stage where tbe persistent p4 is pushing out the milk p4 (which is still present). M4 is just traceable in the bottom of the gum. Hah. Common in Arnhem Land and at Roebuck Bay, but nowhere very numerous. All the specimens seen were of the same small size. It was much in request by the natives for food. Native names: Uia, Uidda. 23. PSEUDOCHIRUS DAHLI, Coll., 1895. (Plate XXIII.) Pseudochirus dahli, Collett, Zoolog. Anzeiger, no. 490, Dec. 1895, p. 464 (1895). N. Australia: Mary River, May-June 1895 (eight specimens, one young in spirit, one embryo). Union Town, Aug. 16tb, 1895 (two specimens, one skeleton). There are in the collection ten specimens of this species (with skull), and one skeleton, besides one young and one embryo in spirit. GENERAL CHARACTERS. Size large. Head small. Tail short (about half the length of the body), tip almost naked. Ears short. Fur long and woolly; colour reddish grey above ; a blackish median frontal line. Tail more rufous, not white-tipped. Breast-spot rufous. Muzzle very narrow ; meatus auditorius inflated ; orbital ridges parallel and not uniting behind; posterior palate with large foramina. Incisors and molars strong, intermediate teeth very feeble or absent. Upper I2 elongated horizontally, lower i1 lancet-shaped. PLASTIC CHARACTERS. Size large. Length of the fresh animal (tail included), according to Dr. Dahl, 80-90 cm. (In the skin the length to the root of tail sometimes exceeds 450 mm., tail 270 ; together a total of about 720 mm.) Head proportionally very small, as well as the ears. Tail very short, its length in some specimens not exceeding half the length of the body (head included). Fur very thick and woolly, much like that of P. archeri; the tail thickly clothed on the upper half or two-thirds of its length, the thick covering gradually tapering towards the tip, which is almost naked (only a few short adpressed hairs). The lower part of the tail entirely naked for two-thirds of its length from the tip. Ears short and broad, long-haired on their posterior roots, more thinly clothed towards their tips ; inside they are well haired along the prominent folds. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1897, No. XXII. 22 |