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Show 1906.] MAMMALS FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 767 inhabited districts, seems also to have adapted itsell to an entirely out-door life here. I have come across it in every place that I have visited in the South-west, in some places at least-twenty miles from any house."-G. G. S. 18. N otomys gouldi Gould. 20 from Stockpool, Dwaladine, and Woyaline. This fine series is of particular value, as these peculiar native Muridae seem to be dying out everywhere in competition with the introduced forms, and the preservation of proper specimens is therefore of much importance. This is the Hapcdotis mitchelli of Gould's ‘ Mammals of Australia,' but not the original Dipus mitchelli of Ogilby. Finding out the mistake when writing the Introduction, Gould said : " II. gouldii of Gray will be the correct designation of the animal I have called II. mitchelli." But unfortunately II. gouldii was never described by Gray, its description having been accidentally omitted from the Appendix to Grey's ‘Australia,' where the name merely occurs as a nomen nudum. Consequently, on the above sentence, the species seems to stand as gouldii of Gould himself, and the specimen figured by him as II. mitchelli, recently received with the Tomes Collection (B.M. No. 7.1.1.135), would be the type. I may here draw the attention of Australian zoologists to the fact that the genus I recently called Ammomys has been renamed Mesembriomys by Mr. T. S. Palmer, the former name having been preoccupied. " The burrows of this species are very difficult to find, the entrances being very small and often hidden by tufts of grass. Each burrow has two or more outlets which descend perpendicularly for some distance and then wind about in all directions, sometimes nearly three feet below the surface. Each burrow contains one pair or family, the usual number of young being four, but occasionally as many as six. Frequenting heavily timbered country and seeming to prefer the neighbourhood of water. This species is said to be migratory, their movements probably being affected by dry seasons. " Native name, 4 Gunding.' "-G. G. S. [O ryctolagus cuniculus Linn. " The Rabbit has so far been kept out of the agricultural districts of the South-west by a rabbit-proof fence that passes through Burracoppin on the Eastern railway, extending to Israelite Bay on the south. It seems to have spread everywhere east of the fence."-G. C.S.~] 19. M acropus giganteus Zimm. 13 specimens from Stockpool, Dwaladine, and Woyaline. " The common or grey Kangaroo of the south-west, not |
