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Show 48 MR. A. H. GARROD ON HALMATURUS LUCTUOSUS. [Feb. 2, 1. O n the Kangaroo called Halmaturus luctuosus by D'Albertis, and its Affinities. By A. H. G A R R O D , B.A., F.Z.S., Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Prosector to the Society. [Eeceived January 16, 1875.] (Plates VII.-IX.) During the time that H.M.S. ' Basilisk' was cruising in the region of the south-east of New Guinea one of the sailors acquired a specimen of a small Kangaroo, which Signor L. M . D'Albertis, C.M.Z.S., obtained from him at Sydney. In a letter addressed to Mr. Sclater, dated Sydney, N . S. W., December 1, 1873, Signor D'Albertis described this specimen, under the name of Halmaturus luctuosus, as follows*: - "Length from the nose to the occiput 4| inches; length of the ears If inch; length of the thigh 5| inches; length of the tarsus, including the nail, 4f inches ; length of the tail 11| inches. Total length, from the nose to the tip of the tail, 2 feet 5 inches. Its weight is 7\ pounds. " The fur is short, its general colour dark ashy brown with a silvery tinge, white at the roots ; chin, throat, and chest white, with two horizontal ashy stripes under the pouch; on the top of the head a silvery whitish spot; the thighs more grey ; feet dark, almost black ; the arm white inside ; the hand black. The tail moderately strong, of a similar colour to the body, but white and bare of hairs for about an inch at the extremity. The lips are barely covered with fur; the eyelids are puffed, almost naked, and provided with eyelashes so fine as not to be readily seen at first sight." Hab. " S.E. of N e w Guinea." On April 17, 1874, this Kangaroo was deposited by Signor D'Albertis in the Society's Gardens ; and at the Meeting for Scientific Business on May 5th following, Mr. Sclater, in reporting on the additions to the Society's Menagerie f, exhibited a drawing of it, and referred to it as " the typical example of Halmaturus luctuosus of D'Albertis." It is this specimen, a female, which forms the subject of the present communication. It died, Nov. 24, 1874, with congested lungs, after a severe frost, the first of the commencing winter. An examination of the dead body, and especially of the mouth, which it was impossible to observe in the living animal, made it evident that the species could not be rightly included in* the genus Macropus or Halmaturus. Further comparison made it clear that it was intimately related to the genus Dendrolagus, and also to the species described in Waterhouse's «Mammalia 'X as Macropus brunii. * P. Z. S. 1874, p. 110. I P. Z. S. 1874, p. 247. pl. xiii. | Vol. i. Marsupiala, p. 180. |
