DESCRIPTION OF A NEW MARSUPIAL MAMMAL, 299 



consider the shell, from the figure and short description Gold- 

 fuss has given, to be the same. My shell is strong, tumid, 

 and perfectly smooth ; hinge-line broad, forming a large ob- 

 tuse angle with the umbo : eight to ten strong teeth (some 

 of which are prominent and angulated) on each side of a 

 small ligamental pit ; lateral muscular impression large, that 

 of the mantle indistinct. The Scottish shell has the acumi- 

 nated side larger than the crag one, and the figure in Gold- 

 fiiss is more oval in shape, but the contour is, I think, insuffi- 

 cient to indicate a specific difference, my own specimens 

 varying, in that respect, among themselves ; the younger ones 

 being less acuminated than those which I suppose are adult. 

 The valves from Ramsholt are often found united together by 

 their large prominent teeth, which, in arrangement, correspond 

 with the Scottish shell ; the interior of the Sicihan one is not 

 represented. 



Art. VII. — Description of a neiu Marsupial Mammal, belonging 

 to the genus Phascogale. By. G. R. Waterhouse, Esq., Cu- 

 rator to the Museum of the Zoological Society, &c. 



The little quadruped I am about to describe, belongs to that 

 section of Australian mammals (order Marsupalia), which 

 M. Temminck' separates from the genus Dasyurus of Geof- 

 froy S. Hilaire,* under the name Phascogale ; the type of 

 this genus being the Didelphis penicillatus of Shaw, ^ which, 

 through the kindness of Professor Owen (who allowed me to 

 examine the original specimen sent over by White, and now 

 in the Museum of the College of Surgeons), I am enabled to 

 state, is the Tapoa Tafa, or Tapha, of White.* The identi- 

 fication of Phase, penicillata with the Tapoa Tafa, is of some 

 little importance, since the Dasyurus Tafa of Geoffroy, which 

 appears in most works as a distinct species, is founded upon 

 White's animal. 



In Temmincks' ^ Monographies' a second species oi Phas- 

 cogale is described, that author having placed in this genus 

 the Dasyurus minimus of Geoffroy ; but as he had not the op- 

 portunity of examining the dentition of this animal, he felt 

 doubtful whether it might not prove to be the young of a spe- 

 cies, the adult state of which remained to be discovered. 



* ' Monographies de Mammalogie,' torn. 1. p. 66. 

 2 ' Annales clu Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, torn. 3. p. 353. 

 3 ' Gen. Zool.,' vol. 1., part 2, p. 502., tab. 1 13, fig. 1. 

 * Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales. 

 Vol. IV.— No. 42. n. s. 2 o 



