16 



DASYURUS. 



Dimensions. Head and body about sixteen inches ; tail about 

 twelve inches. 



Habitat. All Australia except the extreme North, and the 

 coastal districts of the South-East. 



References. Thomas, B.M. Oatal. p. 268, pi. xxiii. figs. 1 (ear), 

 2 (sole) ; Gould, Mamm. Austr. i. pi. li. 



3. DASYURUS VIVERRINUS, Shaw, sp. (1800). 



Common Native Cat. 



Fig. 1. 



Lower jaw of Dasyurus riverrinus, showing 1 typical polyprotodont den- 

 tition (natural size). 



Size medium ; form slender. Fur thick and soft. General 

 color above and below either pale gray or black, spotted with 

 white. Ears large. Hallux absent. Soles granulated, without 

 distinct pads. Tail bushy, its proximal three-fourths like the 

 back, but unspotted, its tip white. Mammpe six. 



Dimensions. Head and body about eighteen inches; tail about 

 twelve inches. 



Habitat. Eastern watershed of New South Wales ; Victoria ; 

 South Australia ; Tasmania. 



References. Thomas, B. M. Catal. p. 265 ; Gould, Mamm. 

 Austr. i. pi. 1. 



Note. This species, in both varieties, but mostly in the light- 

 colored form, is as much, if not more, terrestrial than arboreal, 

 living in dead logs under rocks, or in holes in the cliffs, in which 

 latter place they feed on dead fish, and probably crustaceans, 

 mollusks, &c., and are thus frequently caught in baited fish-traps 

 left bare by the tide or hauled up during bad weather. Fossil 

 remains of this species have been discovered in the Wellington 

 Caves, New South Wales, the Pleistocene Deposits of Gowrie, 

 Queensland, and in Tasmania. 



