162 ON THE NEW-GUINEA MAMMALS. 



unexpected way. Dr. 0. Finsch (Neu-Guinea und seine 

 Bewohner, 1865) enumerated a number of 15 mammals 

 from New-Guinea: 2 bats, 10 marsupials, 1 pig, 1 cetacean, 

 besides Paradoxurus hermaphroditus. Wallace wrote in 1869 

 (the Malay-Archipelago, Vol. II, p. 428) : "the mamma- 

 lia of New-Guinea and the adjacent islands yet discovered, 

 are only seventeen in number; two of these are bats, one 

 is a pig of a peculiar species (Sus papuensis), and the 

 rest are all marsupials". A. Milne Edwards said in 1877 

 (Compt. rend. p. 1081): "I'ordre des Rongeurs est repré- 

 senté a la . Nouvelle Guinee par sept espèces". In 1878, 

 von Rosenberg registered 20 mammals from N. G. (Der 

 malayische Archipel, p. 549), meanwhile K. M. Heller 

 could give a list of 70 mammals inhabiting New-Guinea, 

 Yule-island, Mysore and Jobie (Abhandl. Dresden Museum, 

 1896/97, Bd. VI, No. 8). Dr. H. D. Tjeenk Willink (De 

 Zoogdieren voorkomende in Nederlandsch Indie, 1906) enume- 

 rated 62 mammals, mostly from Dutch New-Guinea. I 

 could point out that up to this year (1906) nearly the 

 double number has been described ! In order to clean the 

 path to future investigators, 1 have undertaken the diflBcult 

 task to study all what hitherto has been written concern- 

 ing the mammals of New-Guinea, so that I exhibit in 

 the following pages a rather complete list of them, together 

 with short descriptions if convenient, with measurements 

 where I judge it necessary, and mostly with a compilation 

 of where a species has been described, with author, locality 

 a. s. o. To my great surprise I found that there have been 

 described from New-Guinea about 40 Bats, about 40 Mice, 

 about 50 Marsupials and Monotremes and 2 Pigs: in all 

 126 mammals! 1 think this may be called a rather res- 

 pectable number, the more as New-Guinea always passes 

 for very poor in mammals! In my view it is somewhat 

 premature to speak of "poor" or "abundant" unless having 

 any notion of what is living on the mountains and in the 

 interior of an island greater than Borneo, of the double 

 size of Great Britain ! The unexpected mammalian fauna^ 



Notes from the Leyden IMuseuixi, Vol. XXVIII. 



