| OCR Text |
Show 1897.] FROM NORTH AUSTRALIA. 335 DESCRIPTION. Size medium, form slender. Fur close (in one specimen composed mostly of under-fur). Colour dark greyish brown above, each hair slaty blue for three-fourths of its length, the tip whitish. Lower surface a little lighter; hands and feet greyish white. Front and cheeks orauge-rufous, snout more greyish ; a black mesial stripe from nose to between the ears. Ears large; laid forwards they reach to the anterior margin of the. eye. Tail greyish white, a little longer than head and body, slightly incrassated, its hair covering thin ; on the tip the hairs are (in some specimens) a little longer and darker coloured. Vlbrlssce greyish. Palms granulated, with six small pads, smooth : four anterior, very small (narrower than the breadth of the claws), two posterior; the postero-external very small, the exterior somewhat larger, about the same size as those on the bases of the claw-joints. Besides these pads there is a small callosity at the wrist. Soles hairy posteriorly, naked anteriorly (as in S. leueopus). Sole-pads 4, very small, not fimbriated; that on the base of the hallux not much larger than the granulations \ Skull. Size of skull in an adult male : length 28 mm., breadth 16-5 mm., length of nasals 10-5 mm., length of bony palate 14 mm. Interorbital space fiat or a little concave, with trace of a postorbital process. Palatal foramina as in S. leueopus. Upper canine long, considerably longer than p4. Premolars not touching ; upper p3 decidedly larger than p1. Upper p4 double as large as p3 (larger than any of the molars). Lower p4 of the same size as p3. LOCALITY. Daly River, North Australia, July and Oct. 1894 (four specimens 2). These four specimens were brought in by the natives, who dug them out in the gardens. Fam. E c H I. D N i D cE. 31. ECHIDNA ACULEATA (Shaw), 1792. Echidna aculeata, var. typlca, Thos. Cat. Mars. Monotr. Brit. Mus. p. 379 (1888); Ogilby, Cat. Austral. Mamm. p. 3 (1892). N. Australia : Daly River, Aug. lst-2nd, 1894 (two specimens). Mary River, May 5th, 1895 (one specimen). Skin. Two males, one female ; all belong to the same form as 1 There is no trace of a second posterior sole-pad, as figured by Thomas in S. leueopus (Cat. Mars. Monotr. Brit. Mus. pl. 23. fig. 6). 2 Two as skins, two preserved in spirit. |
