Sir R. Owen investigated the anatomy of a small Kangaroo-Rat which had been described by Mr. Ramsay in Australia, and which was remarkable for its musky smell. It is a long and slender-bodied little animal, measuring about one foot three inches and a half from the snout to the end of the tail, which is five inches and nine lines in the female, and rather less in the male. Its hinder legs are shorter, and the head is more slender and pointed than in the Kangaroo-Rats just described. The fur is of moderate length, pretty closely applied, and has numerous rather long hairs scattered here and there, the visible portions being black or blackish, or pointed. These are relieved by the dark and light-barred colour of the visible part of the shorter hairs, all the hairs being of a leaden-greyish tint at the skin. The upper surface of the body has a close and stiff fur of rich golden colour, mixed with black; the head, face, and lower parts of the legs are dark brownish-grey; and there are a few patches of white along the centre of the throat and chest. The fur covers the tail for half an inch or more, and then the rest is naked, and covered with a network of scales about three to a line in length. The scales are black above, and a few minute and very short hairs project from the interstices of the scales. The animal has a naked muffle and rounded ears. The hind foot is remarkable, for whilst the skull and dentition of the creature would associate it more with the Kangaroo-Rats, the position of the first toe (wanting in the Kangaroo-Rats) resembles somewhat that of the Phalangista group, or the Phalangers, which will be noticed further on. The sole of the foot is long, and there is a nailless projecting first toe, like a thumb; next come the second and third toes--small, united by skin, and leaving the two combing-nails visible; and then the largest, or fourth toe, is followed by a smaller fifth. Sir R. Owen judged that this animal was an occasional climber of trees, but that its usual locality was on the ground. Mr. Ramsay states that it lives in the Rockingham Bay district, and that it frequents the dense and damp positions of the scrubs which fringe the rivers and clothe the sides of the coast range. Its habits are diurnal, and its movements are graceful. It procures its food by turning over the rubbish in search of insects, worms, and tuberous roots, frequently eating the palm-berries, which it holds with its fore paws, after the manner of the Phalangers, sitting up on its haunches, or sometimes digging. They have a pouch, and two young ones have been found in it. Considering the importance of the great toe to the animal, and its linking together the climbing and jumping Marsupials, Sir R. Owen acknowledged the necessity of recognising Mr. Ramsay’s name of _Hypsiprymnodon moschatus_, and of thus bringing in a new genus into a new family in the Kangaroo series with two large front teeth in the lower jaw.[97]