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Show 460 MR. E. R. ALSTON ON ANTECHINOMYS. [June 15, Gould \ distinguished by having " only four toes on the hind foot, without any indication of a thumb, the tarsi completely covered with hair, and the underside of the toes and foot alone naked " 2. A fourth genus of Dasyuridae, characterized in the same paper, is Chee-tocercus, a form which I only know from Mr. Krefft's description and plate, but which is evidently allied to Dasyurus rather than to Phascologale3. From the facts noted above it appears to me to be evident that Phascologale and Antechinus are much more closely allied with one another than they are to Podabrus and Antechinomys, which, in their turn, are nearly related to one another. If we regard the whole group as a subfamily of the Dasyuridae, the apparent affinities of the genera might be expressed as follows :- PHASCOLOGALIN^E. Dental formula i. ~, c. ~\, p. f^f, m. ^ | = 46; middle upper incisors larger than the rest, molars with very pointed cusps. Thumb of hind foot small, opposable, nailless, rarely absent. Tail either tufted on the apical portion or clothed with short hairs without. [a. Arboreal. Hind feet short and broad, soles naked to the heel, with transversely striated pads. Stomach transversely elongated.] 1. P H A S C O L O G A L E . Middle upper incisors very large, considerably raked forward, with indications of an incipient inner cusp. Pouch absent (Krefft). Tail tufted on apical portion, fur soft. 2. A N T E C H I N U S . Middle upper incisors proportionally smaller, placed more perpendicularly. Pouch present, although sometimes very shallow. Tail clad with short hairs throughout its length. [fl. Terrestrial. Hind feet slender, the sole more or less hairy on the metatarsus, with tuberculated callosities at the base of the toes. Stomach subglobular.] 3. P O D A B R U S . Pouch present. Limbs moderate; thumb of hind foot present. Tail clad throughcut with short hairs. 4. A N T E C H I N O M Y S . Pouch absent. Forearm and hind foot greatly elongate ; thumb, with its metatarsus, absent. Tail tufted at its apical portion. Not having sufficient material for a revision of the numerous described species of Phascologalinee, I will conclude by noting what little is recorded of the life of Antechinomys, which is a native of east-central Australia. Mr. Gould's type was obtained by Sir Thomas Mitchell during one of his expeditions into the interior ; Mr. Krefft gives "the Lower Murray River district, near the junction of the Darling," as a habitat; and the specimen described above was stated by Mr. L. A. Peers (who presented it to the Cambridge Museum) to have been caught near Cooper's Creek, or the Barcoo, a river which rises in Central Queensland and flows southwards into Lake Eyre, in South Australia. From the structure of the limbs and the characters of the soles of the feet, it is evident 1 Mamm. Austr. i. pl. xxxiii. (1863). 2 P. Z. S. 1866 p. 434. 3 Tom. cit. pp. 434, 435, pl. xxxvi. |