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Show 198 MR. OLDFIELD THOMAS OX NEW [Nov. 3, Phcdauger carmelitce, Pseudochirus corinnce, Dasyurus albopunc-tatus, and Leptomys elegans, the last two having been previously unrepresented in the National Museum. The new forms were described as follows :- HYOMYS, g. n. (Murida?). Size very large; form bulky. Fur coarse and harsh. Feet proportionally short; pollex with a broad nail. Tail of medium length, very coarsely scaled, practically naked. Mamma? 0 - 2 = 4. Skull stout and heavily built. Nasals yery broad in front, narrowing rapidly behind to a point. Postorbital processes present, quite separate from the supraorbital ridges, which, though distinct, are not heavily developed. Palatal foramina short; posterior palate cut out to level of front of m.3 Bulla? small, little inflated, each with a raised rim running along its inner margin. Paroccipital processes strongly developed. Incisors large, equally broad above and below, and of normal depth. Molars (see PI. XXIII. figs. 2 a & 2 c) very large and heavy, their length one quarter the basilar length, and their breadth nearly equal to that of the palate between them ; very distinctly laminate, though the lamina? have got the normal murine curvature. M.2 and m.a each with a well-developed antero-internal cusp so joined with the anterior lamina as to form a distinct Y-shaped structure when worn ; no antero-external secondary cusps. M.3 with the posterior overhang very unusually developed. Two anterior lower molars with the normal posterior supplementary cusp very large, so as to form a short extra lamina extending from the centre of the tooth to its inner edge. Type, Hyomys meeki. This genus was not distinguished by any single character of marked importance, but the gigantic Rat on which it was based could not be referred to any of the known Papuan genera of Murida?. Its molars, while enormously larger, had the general appearance of those of Mus or Uromys, and had nothing of what might be called the zigzag character exhibited in Crateromys, Lenomys, and Mallomys, to none of which did it seem specially allied. HYOMYS MEEKI, sp. n. (Plate XXIII. figs. 2 «-2 c.) Fur harsh, general body-hairs about 25 m m . in length, but a number of bristles 60 to 70 m m . long intermixed with the shorter fur. General colour dark slaty greyish, the hairs grey proximally, with black or brown ends; longer bristles dark with whitish or buffy ends. Under surface dirty greyish, not sharply defined, the bases grey, the ends dirty buffy. Head like back ; whiskers very numerous, stiff, black. Ears short, rounded, naked; a small tuft of whitish hairs above their anterior base. Limbs uniformly brown throughout; upper surface of hands and feet nearly naked, blackish; palms and soles naked, pads broad and fleshy; fifth hind toe reaching to the end of the first phalanx |