1130 ON NEW OR RARE VERTEBRATES FROM THE HERBERT RIVER, 



knee — below this the flanks and anteriorly the lower throat are 

 buffy yellow becoming golden-yellow on the middle of the abdomen, 

 and bright coffee-colour before the scrotum and around the vent. 

 The ears are pale yellow externally, and the black patch at their 

 base is almost obsolete. The customary markings on the head are 

 recognisable, the fore feet brown, hind feet brownish-red, major 

 part of tail black. The fur (winter coat) is short and crisp, the 

 coarse hair of the tail short. The size is considerably larger 

 than in ordinary Queensland examples of P. vulpina, and the 

 contrasted colouring gives the animal a very different aspect. 



PSEUDOCHIRUS MONGAN, 11. Sp. 



There is reason to fear that the describer of Phalangista 

 (Pseudochirus) Herbertensis has been led into a mistake in his 

 determination of the sexes of that Phalanger. It would appear 

 that in the mountain-top scrubs of the Herbert Gorge there are 

 two associated species of Pseudochirus, and that these are, 

 curiously enough, not distinguished from each other by the 

 natives of the locality, who give to them the common name 

 'Mongan.' From such community of name has probably resulted 

 an idea that they are identical, and this, communicated to Mr. 

 Collett, has no doubt misguided him in his determination. 

 Trivially we may distinguish between the White-armed Mongan 

 and the Brown Mongan; systematically we may preserve the 

 native name in the binomial of the latter and apparently more 

 abundant animal. 



Adult male — the colour of the upper surface, from the forehead 

 to the base of the tail, is a dark lustrous brown — the hairs of the 

 back are greyish-brown at the base, and the majority of the 

 longer hairs have their distal halves either dark rufous-brown or 

 rufous-yellow, the latter yielding a ruddy sheen which is more 

 or less lost on the limbs and entirely so on the tail. The dark 

 brown of the upper surface descends broadly on the chin 

 becoming however paler as it approaches the mid-line. The throat 

 and mid-line of the chest and abdomen (including the scrotum) 



