(394 ) 



ON SOME KANGAROOS AND BANDICOOTS FROM BARRO^Y 

 ISLAND, N.W. AUSTRALIA, AND THE ADJOINING 



MAINLAND.* 



By OLDFIELD THOMAS. 



TN couuection with the dctermiuation of some Kaugaroos from North- Western 

 J- Australia sent home some time ago by Mr. B. H. ^Voodward of the Perth 

 Museum, a question arose as to the characters of tlie Kangaroos described by Gould 

 as Macropus isabellihus t on an imperfect skin from Barrow Island, off the north- 

 western coast of Australia. That skin, preserved in the British Museum, | had 

 remained unique up to tlie present time, and therefore Mr. Woodward, with 

 great enterprise, got up, last year, an expedition to Barrow Island in order to 

 obtain topotypes of this little-known animal. His collector, Mr. Tnnney, was 

 succcssfnl in obtaining a nnmber of sjiecimens, besides e.xamples of Lnqorchestes 

 conspicillatus, Gould, and of the Bandicoot described below ; and a series of 

 these species has been generously given to tlie National Mnseum by the 

 authorities of the Perth Mnseum. 



Instead of being, as I had sujiposed § from the original and very imperfect 

 skin, a relative of Maciopus ru/us, the Barrow Island Kangaroo proves to be 

 another member of the M. robastus group, like the form which I described from 

 the Mnrchison District of Western Anstralia in last year's Proceedings. 



The head is without any of the characteristic markings of M. ruj'tts, and 

 the skull shows all the structural characters of ^f. i-obustus, bat is much smaller, 

 as might have been expected from the insular habitat of the animal. It is also 

 noticeably stonter and more heavily built. The hind feet are remarkably short, 

 measuring only 250 mm. in an old male. The tijis of the ears behind arc brown 

 or blackish, those of all the related continental forms being reddish or sandy like 

 the rest of the head. 



Further details on this snbject are to be found in a paper which Mr. Waite 

 has recently written || on a specimen in the Sydney Musimiiu, collected by 

 Mr. Tunney at the same time, and also received from the Perth Museum. 



The more accurate knowledge now, therefore, available abont M. isabellinus 

 enables me to give an opinion about some other N.W. Australian Kangaroos received 

 previously from Mr. Woodward. 



These are, firstly, a set of four, two males and two females, from Yalgoo, 



The Tring Museum having rcceiveil the first specimens of Mai-mjiux nibiixtits woodwardi and 

 other examples of Mr. B. H. Woodward's collections which form part of the material on which 

 these notes and descriptions are based, .Mr. Thomas kindly consented to publish them in "Novitates 

 Zoologicae."— Walter Rothschild. 



t PZ.S. 1841. p. 81. 



t No. 41. 10. 12. 5. 



§ r!at. Mars. li. M., p. 25. 1888. None of the red members of the M. robimtiis group were then known. 



II Records of Australian Museum, IV. p. 131. pis. xviii. xii. (skull), I'.IOI. 



