NOTES ON SOME AUSTRALIAN MAMMALS. 353 
kindness in procuring me specimens, recently brought me four 
small foetuses which he had found in the pouch of a specimen he 
had shot. The foetuses had evidently been just born, being each 
about two-thirds of an inch in length. Though this specimen was 
shot in the last week of June, the Ring-tailed Phalangers usually 
have their young about the same time as the Common Phalanger 
(Lrichoswrus vulpecula (Kerr) ), in the end of April and the begin- 
ning of May. 
Dromicia nana (Desm.). 
This species is regarded as being confined to Tasmania. Two 
specimens, it is true, were captured at North Shore, Sydney, and 
described by Krefft in 1863 under the name Dromicia unicolor ; 
but as no further specimens have ever been found, Thomas says 
with regard to the North Shore specimens, “I have no doubt both 
specimens were Tasmania specimens which had escaped from 
captivity.” 
In the fossil deposits in the neighbourhood of the Wombeyan 
Caves, which I have been studying for some time, I have found 
the remains of Dromicia nana in great abundance, so that it 
must have been one of the commonest of the small Marsupials of 
New South Wales in the later Tertiary period. Not only, how- 
ever, is there conclusive evidence of its former existence, but, from 
a recent discovery, it must have survived into quite recent times, 
and may even be alive to-day in its old home. 
In the Grand Arch of the Wombeyan Caves—which is a large 
natural bridge—there are on the numerous ledges near the base, 
which are frequented by Rock Wallabies, mingled with the dry 
and decomposing wallaby dung, a large number of small mammalian 
and other bones. These remains are chiefly those of Petawrus 
brevicens, Waterh., Phascologale flavipes, Waterh., and the Bush 
Rat, with a few bones of Pseudochirus peregrinus (Bodd.), Perameles 
obesula (Shaw), and some of small birds and snakes. Among these, 
however, I was fortunate in finding two jaws of Dromicia nana 
(Desm.). As the Wombeyan Caves are situated in one of the 
wildest parts of the colony, it is quite impossible that these remains 
could be those of Tasmanian specimens escaped from captivity. 
Nor is any such theory now required even for the North Shore 
specimens, in view of the fact that Dromicia nana (Desm.) was 
