DESCRIPTION OF A NEW PHASCOQALE 



FROM BRITISH NEW GUINEA, OBTAINED BY DR. L. LORIA 



BY OLDFIELD THOMAS 



Dr. Gestro has been good enough to send me for determination 

 two specimens of a Phascoga/e which had been obtained in 

 British New Guinea by Dr. Loria, but which had not been 

 included in my account of that gentleman's general collection. 



F*lxa,sco^-alo melamira, sp. n. 



Related to Ph. longicandata but smaller and with a shorter 

 tail, which is black and well haired. 



Size about as in Ph. /lavipes. Fur short, close and velvety. 

 General colour grizzled mouse-brown, nearly uniform through- 

 out, on head, body and limbs; rather more rufous on rump. 

 Patch behind ears pale rufous. Undersurface washed with dull 

 buffy. Hands and feet pale brown; sole pads 5, the hallucal 

 pad undivided. Tail rather longer than the head and body, 

 clothed and coloured like the back for its basal half inch, the 

 remainder, instead of being quite short-haired, covered with 

 somewhat lengthened hairs 4-5 mm. long, which quite hide 

 the scales, and give a very different appearance to the mouse-like 

 tail of Ph. longicaudata and the other species of this group; 

 these longer hairs are brown proximally, gradually darkening 

 to black terminally. Mammae 4. 



Skull not unlike that of Ph. /lavipes, though rather less flat- 

 tened ; palatal vacuities opposite m 1 ■+- m 2 ; bullae rather small. 



