DASYURUS. 17 



4. DASYURUS GRACILIS, Ramsay (1888). 

 Slender Native Cat. 



Size small ; form light and graceful. Fur short, close, and 

 somewhat harsh to the touch. General color above and below 

 deep blackish-brown, spotted with white, the spots on the sides 

 and on the basal third of the tail largest and sometimes confluent. 

 Ears rather short, thinly haired proximally outside, the inside 

 with a tuft of long hairs on the anterior margin. Hallux present. 

 Claws long and powerful. Tail long, slender, the terminal inch 

 tufted, colored like the body. Marnmaj 1 



Dimensions. Head and body thirteen inches ; tail nine and a 

 half inches. 



Habitat. Bellenden-Ker Range, Northern Queensland. 



Type. In the Australian Museum, Sydney. 



Reference. Ramsay, P.L.S. N.S. Wales, (2) iii. p. 1296 (1888). 



Note. Were it not for the indisputably adult dentition of the 

 unique specimen on which Dr. Ramsay has founded his new species, 

 and that evidence, presumably reliable, points to the existence in 

 the same district of a Spotted-tailed Dasyure as large as or even 

 larger than the southern D. maculatus, I should have been inclined 

 to consider this specimen as merely an aborted tropical form of 

 that species ; until, however, further research has undeniably 

 proved the presence there of two so widely separated races it is 

 perhaps better to keep them apart. It is worth mentioning that 

 both in its fauna and flora the Bellenden-Ker Ranges shew more 

 distinct affinities to the Papuan than to the restricted Australian 

 Subregion ; for instance the Rhododendron flourishes in a wild 

 state in these mountains only of Australia, having evidently 

 travelled round from the Himalayas along the highlands of New 

 Guinea, and so down the northern Queensland Ranges ; similarly 

 such typical Papuan forms as Dendrolagus among Mammals, 

 Casuarius among Birds, Papuina among Molluscs, Perichceta 

 among Earthworms, with many others, have found their way into 

 our fauna. 



5. DASYURUS MACULATUS, Kerr, sp. (1792). 

 Spotted-tailed Native Cat. 



Size large ; form stout and heavy. Fur thick and close. General 

 color above dark brown with a rufous or orange tinge, but never 

 black, with large white spots ; below white or pale yellow. Ears 

 rather short and very thinly haired. Hallux present. Claws 

 large and powerful. Tail very long, brown or rufous brown, 

 spotted like the body. Mamma? six. 



Dimensions. Head and body about twenty-five inches ; tail 

 about nineteen inches. 



