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Show 536 MR. OLDFIELD THOMAS OX [May 15, 2. On Mammals from Northern Australia presented to the National Museum by Sir Win. Ingram, Bt., and the Hon. John Forrest. By O l d f i e l d Thomas, F.R.S., F.Z.S.* [Received April 2, 1906.] (Plate XX XV II.f) The Northern Territory of South Australia has a Mammalian fauna of a very peculiar type, and one that is far from being worked out, in spite of the labours of Dr. Elsey, Mr. Gould's collectors, and others in early days, and of Dahl, Tunney, and others more recently. Similarly the centre of the continent is badly represented in the National Collection, although Prof. W. 13. Spencer, of Melbourne, who first went there with the Horn Expedition, has laid the foundation of a proper knowledge of it. Now, thanks to the liberality of Sir William Ingram, Bart., and of the Hon. John Forrest, of Brisbane, a zoological collector has been put to work at Alexandria, a station intermediate in position between the two areas above referred to, and therefore in a district possessing a very special interest to the student of Australian zoology. Alexandria is situated about lat. 19° S., long. 137° E., about 200 miles inland from the S.W. coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and lies in an area draining inwards to the Polygonum swamp. The watershed-boundaries would, however, appear to be low, and unlikely to act as barriers to the dispersal of species, so that in this region the question of drainage is not likely to be of great zoological importance. Collections have also been made near Alroy, about 100 miles to the west of Alexandria. Perhaps later the exploration may be extended still further west to the ranges along the Trans-continental Telegraph-line. Mr. W. Stalker, the collector employed, has naturally found immense difficulties in the way of collecting in this desert region, owing to the long-continued drought, no rains of any value having fallen for several years, and the fauna being therefore at its lowest ebb. For this reason the collection of which I here give a list is a most creditable one for the time in which it was obtained, and as rain has since fallen in the district we may hope that Mr. Stalker will now be enabled to capture many further forms of interest that have hitherto escaped him. The present collection contains exam plies of 16 species, of which five are new. The most interesting of these is the peculiar little flat-headed Marsupial mouse which I have named Phciscogale * [The complete accounts of the new species described in this communication appear here; the names and preliminary diagnoses of two of the species were published in the ‘ Abstract,' and these are distinguished by the names being underlined.- E d i t o r .] f For explanation of the Plate, see p. 543. |