( 434 ) 



The second Cnscns may be named in hononr of its collector, tn whom science 

 is already indebted for the discovery of no less than three other members of the 

 genns, Phalanger lullulae, Ph. orientalis intcrcasteUanus, and Ph. o. kiriwinae. 



2. Phalanger orientalis meeki snbsp. nov. 



Male pale brownish, almost exactly as in snbsp. intercastellanHS, therefore 

 qnite dittercnt from the silvery grey, getting white in old age, of snbsp. kiritcinae. 

 The longer hairs arc whitish for their basal, black for their terminal halves. The 

 woolly fur is dull whitisli basally, gradually becoming more brownish terminally. 

 Dorsal line present, but, owing to the general brownish colour of the back, not 

 conspicuous. Face greyer. Sides of neck and shonlders more or less suffused with 

 darker brown, evidently of glandular origin. Under surfoce dull greyish brown, 

 not sharply defined; a narrow central white Hue on the chest. Limbs and furry 

 part of tail coloured like back. 



Female dark wavy cinereous grey, very much as in many New Guinea 

 specimens: much darker than in kiriwinae. Belly dull greyish, paler and less 

 brown than in the male, but also without conspicuous colour contrasts. 



Skull still smaller than in intercusteUnnns and kiriwinae, therefore far smaller 

 than in typicia, and approaching in size that of breviceps. luterorbital region 

 narrow, its ridges nearly or qnite parallel, not projecting as postorbital processes 

 and but little overhanging the temporal fossae. The most projecting point is 

 scarcely anterior to the front edge of the brain-case, as in hrerieeps, while in the 

 other forms it overhangs the fossae quite clear of the brain-case. Middle upper 

 premolar not present in any of the specimens examined. Lower intermediate teeth 

 generally three, in one case two. 



Skull-dimensions * of the type, an old male : — 



Extreme lengtli s2, basal lengtli t 74, greatest breadth 52-7; nasals, length 

 32, greatest breadth ITS, least breadth 5-4; interorbital breadth 9-3; tip to tip of 

 rudimentary postorbital processes 9-5; intertemporal breadth 7-1 ; palate, length 4.5; 

 horizontal oblique diameter of last upper premolar 3-9; length of ms'-^ 14-6. 



Hab. St. Aignan's Island, Louisiade Archipelago. 



Ti/pe: Brit. Mus., No. 9.S.4.1..5. Collected by Albert S. Meek. 



Of this local subspecies Mr. Meek sent home nearly a dozen examples, four 

 of them being retained for the British Museum collection, and others are in the Tring 

 Museum. 



Ph. 0. meeki is no doubt, as is natural, most nearly allied to Ph. o. kiriioinae 

 and intercaatellanus, but differs from the first by its colour, from the second by the 

 different structure of its interorbital region, and from both by its smaller size. 



* The typical skin is so contracted as not to be worth measuring, but the following are the dimensions 

 of another itiale, t.-iken from a skin made up after being sent in spirit :— head and body 415 ; tail 297 ; 

 hind-foot 59 ; car IH. 



t Basal length of three other specimens :— <J 7H-6, 71-2, ? 71-5. 



