114 CONILURUS. 



cannot, therefore, be utilized again. The species on which the 

 genus Conilurus was founded was named by its describer (7. 

 constructor, but further researches have proved its identity with 

 the Hapalotis albipes of Lichtenstein. Major Mitchell's original 

 specimens were forwarded to the British Museum under the name 

 of " Native Rabbit," and the generic term selected above is 

 intended to signify a " small rabbit with a long tail." 



These graceful little animals supply in Australia the place of 

 the Jerboas of Africa, South-eastern Europe, and Southern and 

 Central Asia. 



1. CONILURUS ALBIPES, Lichtenstein, sp. (1827). 

 White-footed Jerboa-Eat. 



Tail equal in length to the head and body or but little shorter ; 

 fur long, soft, and close. Upper surface of the head and body, 

 the ears, flanks, and outer surface of the limbs gray, tipped with 

 ashy-brown, interspersed with numerous fine black-tipped hairs ; 

 whiskers and a narrow band encircling the eye black ; under 

 surface of body, inner surface of limbs, hands, and feet white ; 

 tail above dark brown, sides, below, and extreme tip white. 



Dimensions. Head and body to ten inches ; tail about the 

 same length. 



Habitat. South-eastern Australia ; southern portion of South 

 Australia. 



References. Ogilby, Trans. Linn. Soc. 1838, xviii. (description) 

 p. 126, as C. constructor ; Gray, Ann. Nat. Hist. ii. 1839, p. 308; 

 Gould, Mamrn. Austr. iii. pi. i. 



Note. According to Gould this species, though widely dis- 

 persed within the limits indicated above, is nowhere very abun- 

 dant. It is "strictly nocturnal in its habits, sleeping during the 

 day in the hollow limbs of prostrate trees, or such hollow branches 

 of the large Eucalypti as are near the ground, in which situations 

 it may be found curled up in a warm nest of dried leaves." Fossil 

 remains of this species have been obtained in the Pleistocene of 

 New South Wales. 



The following remarks from the pen of Sir George Grey touch- 

 ing the method of carrying its young, adopted by this species and 

 possibly by others of its congeners, but so totally at variance with 

 the habits prevailing in the intimately allied genus Mus, are 

 worthy of reproduction ; he writes, " The specimen I send you, 

 a female, had three young ones attached to its teats when it was 

 caught : the mother has no pouch, but the young attach them- 

 selves with the same or even greater tenacity than is observable 

 in the young of Marsupiata (METATHERIA of this Hand-list, 



HE 



