ON NEW OR RARE VERTEBRATES FROM THE 

 HERBERT RIVER, NORTH QUEENSLAND. 



By C. W. De Vis, M.A. 



Halmaturus sp. 



The paderaelon of the Herbert district is a member, apparently 

 undescribed, of the thetidis group — of which it has the familiar 

 haunch-stripe and red shoulders. It seems to resemble greatly 

 H. Wilcoxi, McCoy ; a species not yet in the hands of the writer — 

 further comment upon it is therefoie deferred. 



Phalangista vulpina. 



From the forest on the summit of Mount Echo, Mr. Broadbent, 

 in a late trip to the Herbert Gorge, obtained a single example of 

 a red 'possum.' In a family shewing so strong a tendency to the 

 assumption of rufous colouring, that tint, however well marked, 

 is, for determinative purposes, quite unreliable. Though shorter in 

 the ear, broader across the muzzle, stronger in the teeth, and 

 apparently longer in the limb than the ordinary P. vuljnna, it fails 

 to convince one that it is anything more than a variety of that 

 animal. But as it may prove to be a permanent variety of restricted 

 habitat, and is certainly extreme in its chromatic variation, a 

 description of it may not be altogether useless. The usual coffee- 

 coloured streak on the chest and throat is well developed, and, 

 passing faintly over the side of the neck, spreads with a bright 

 tint over the occiput, nape and mantle. On the back and outer 

 side of the limbs the colour becomes rufous, the hair of the upper 

 back being at the base, red, of the lower back and limbs yellow, 

 the tips of the hairs on the body partly shining yellow, partly 

 black, those of the limbs black. The dark rufous colouring of the 

 upper surface ends abruptly on a line drawn from the armpit to the 



