110 



CUSCUS MACULATUS. 



cribed by Gould , s. n. Phalangista nudicaudata. Gray con- 

 sidered it a good species, but baptized it Cuscus hrevicau- 

 datus and classified it three years later in his section Euciis- 

 cus. Four females (of Cuscus maculatus) from Ceram and 

 from the South coast of New-Guinea he considered to 

 belong to Spilocuscus chrysorrhos ; an adult and a half- 

 grown male , both spotted, and from New-Guinea , he brought 

 under the named head with the supposition >^ that they may 

 belong to Spilocuscus maculatus^'' (and in this Gray was quite 

 right). Two adult males from Waygeroo (Waigeou) and 

 Aru-Island and an adult male and female from Waygeroo 

 (Waigeou) he considered to belong to Spilocuscus maculatus. 



Under the name Cuscus 7nac2datus, var. ochr opus Dr. Qraj 

 described a male (apparently a young male of Cuscus ma- 

 culatus) and a female (exactly agreeing with Temminck's 

 Phalangista chrysorrhos and therefore a true female of Cus- 

 cus maculatus) from North-Australie , Port Albany. That 

 Gray had not the slightest idea of the extremely great 

 variability in the mode of coloring in the individuals of 

 Cuscus maculatus may appear to every one who takes the 

 trouble to read the discussion by that author in 1866 

 (P. Z. S. L. p. 220). 



Prof. Peters shortly described (1881) a series of speci- 

 mens collected by Beccari, d'Albertis and Bruyn from 

 Waigeou , Arou , Key , New-Guinea and from the islands 

 in the bay of Geelvink. I remark that a female collected 

 by Bruyn in Waigeou is colored like the male-specimens. 



The unequalled material at my disposal permits to trace 

 in short lines the typical color of male and female; in 

 my summing up of the specimens preserved in our Mu- 

 seum I will endeavour to give a short description of every 

 specimen if need be. 



Male. Head , upperparts , clothed part of tail and outer- 

 side of legs white, irregularly spotted with red, brown 

 or black. Lowerparts and innerside of legs white. 



Female. Head , upperparts , sides of body and outerside 

 of legs black , brown or red , the hairs always tipped with 



iN'otes from the £jeydeii IVEueeura, Vol. VII. 



