OCR Text |
Show 1881.] MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE KOALA. 181 tendant, it slept, perched upon the branches of a tree erected for its use, by day, whilst at night it wandered about the room. Very unfortunately, on the night of the 14th of June it was accidentally killed, whilst thus roaming about at night, by getting caught between the top and bottom of a fixed washing-stand, which had been allowed to remain in the room. It had apparently climbed up this and brought down on its neck the heavy lid. Nobody being near, and in spite of evidently determined struggles on its own part, it failed to relieve itself, and so was found dead in the morning from asphyxia. The death of this animal, so unfortunate for visitors to the Society's Gardens, has given m e the opportunity of putting on record some additional facts concerning the anatomy of the soft parts of this species. Mr. W . Martin, in this Society's'Proceedings' for 1836 l, has described already some of the most striking features of the animal's organization; and in Prof. Owen's 'Anatomy of Vertebrates ' (vol. iii.) a few additional facts concerning it are also recorded. More recently Mr. A. H. Young has described and figured the male reproductive organs (Journ. Anat. Phys. xiii. pp. 305-317, pi. xviii.). All these anatomists, however, had only spirit-preserved specimens to work on ; a few additional observations from the fresh specimen may therefore be worth putting on record, and the liver, brain, and female reproductive organs described in particular, these important parts of the system having been only imperfectly, or not at all, described by my predecessors in this field. The following dimensions were taken on the body of the animal:- inches, millim. Total length, from tip of nose to end of body .. 17'0 432 Length of eve l'O 25 „ ear (greatest) 2-15 55 head 4'0 100 ,, nude muzzle 1*4 35 chin 2-65 67 Breadth across muzzle l'O 25 ,, of mouth 1*3 33 Distance between cloaca and mammas L25 32 The tail is a mere stump above the cloaca, which latter is well defined by a well-marked circular marginal fold of the integuments. The hallux has no trace of a thumb. The skin is generally flesh-coloured ; but the soles of the manus and pes, together with the naked "muffle," are black. The skin of the large and hairy ears is flesh-coloured. There is a narrow naked ring round the eyes ; and the irides are brown. The pupil is a vertical oval. The nostrils are transversely oblique, the nasal septum measuring 3| millims. The upper lip is split; but the split does not quite, when the surrounding parts are expanded, reach the nostrils. The skin is sparsely covered with hairs between the rami of the mandible; for nearly two inches behind it the skin is absolutely naked ; and on the sides (running i P.Z.S. 1836, pp. 109-113. |