Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2Grey, George
History
Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2
Grey, George
Natural history -- Australia -- Western Australia; Western Australia -- Discovery and exploration
Number 22. Phascogale leucogaster, Gray.
Head and shoulders grey, behind rather browner, with scattered longer
black-tipped hairs; chin and beneath pure white; feet brownish grey. Body
and head, 4; tail, 2 1/2 inches.
Inhabits Western Australia, banks of the Canning River, April 1839, Mr.
Gould.
More specimens and further observations may prove these to be only local
varieties of one species; but the specimens we have from the same
localities are similar in character, which is not the case with the
different specimens of Hepoona.
Number 26. Perameles fasciata, Gray.
Grey brown, rump with three black bands; tail white, with a black streak
along the upper side. Inhabits Liverpool Plains and South Australia;
smaller than P. gunnii.
Number 28. Perameles fusciventer, Gray.
Brown, yellow grizelled; tail above blackish, beneath grey; head short,
conical; belly grey brown, with broad rufous channelled hairs. This
species is like P. obesula in colour, but the head is shorter, and the
belly of that species is white, with white bristles.
Number 37. Dromicia nana.
The dentition and the peculiar form and character of the tail of this
species at once point out that it should constitute a distinct genus from
the other Phalangers, from which it differs in many of its habits.
Number 38. Hepoona cookii.
Specimens from the same locality differ from one another in the extent of
the white on the tail, in the darkness of the colour of the fur, and in
the limbs and sides of the body being of the colour of the back, or more
or less rufous. There are either five or six species, or only one.
Number 39.
I have retained the name of Petaurista for the flying Phalangers with
hairy ears, as Dr. Shaw's Didelphis petaurus is evidently the same as P.
flaviventer, and has naked ears, like the other species, and his name
Petaurus should be used rather than Mr. Waterhouse's Belideus for this
genus.
Number 40.
Petaurista leucogaster, may only be a variety of P. taguanoides.
Number 42. Petaurus macrourus.
This species is only known from the figures of Dr. Shaw. They have a
specimen of a young Petaurista taguanoides, under this name, in the Paris
Museum.
Number 43. Petaurus breviceps.
This is probably the species called P. peronii in Mr. G. Bennett's
catalogue of the Australian Museum. It may also be M. Desmarest's; if
this is so, the latter name will have to be adopted, and the one first
used erased from the list.
Number 47.
The Macropi with hairy muffles are found in grassy places, while the
Halmaturi are confined to the scrubs; and the Petrogalae, or
Rock-Kangaroos, to the rocky districts; the latter, like Bettongia, sit
with their tail between the legs. Mr. Gould informs me the animals of the
latter genus also use their tails for the purpose of carrying the grass
to their nests. The tree Kangaroos of New Guinea have a tail somewhat
like a squirrel. These differences of habit show the propriety of
dividing this group of animals into genera.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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