SOUTH QUEENSLAND MABSUPIALS.— LONGMAN. 299 



To facilitate comparisons, these measurements have been taken on the 

 Hnes of Thomas's Catalogue. 



The narrower nasals (especially i:i their expanded region) are an out- 

 standing feature when this skull is compared with a series of a dozen ualabatus. 

 Both the internal and the external nares are relatively smaller in the island species. 

 The palitr.l openings are smaller and the anterior foramina are narrow 3r than 

 in ualabatus, but these last two features are too variable to be of much value. 



In colour Macropus welsbyi most nearly resembles the large kangaroo 

 M. antilopinus, from the Coburg Peninsula. It is quite distinct from M. 

 ualabatus ingrami, described by Thomas in 1908*, and from the North Queens- 

 land M. ualabatus apicali-. 



Apart f;om cranial characteristics, the presence of these very handsome 

 red wallabies has been so often vouched for by naturalists visiting Stradbroke 

 that it is impossible to dismiss them as examples of erythrism. But for the 

 fact that specimens of typical ualabatus are also found on Stradbroke, these 

 uniformly- coloured wallabies might be considered a well-marked island variety of 

 the common speciesi. 



MACROPUS AGILIS Gould. 



It is somewhat of a surprise to receive from Stradbroke Island a large 

 pelt, accompanied with a skull, of Macropus agilis Gould. This was secured 

 in 1918 by Mr. Frank Day and Mr. Thomas Welsby at WaUin Creek, near 

 Amity Point, Stradbroke. The Queensland Museum has a fair series of these 

 large wallabies, but the previous most southerly record was Fitzroy River, 

 " 40 miles from Rockhampton," where the late Kendall Broadbent obtained 

 six specimens in 1S87. (Thi^. Fitzroy River muct not be confounded with the 

 West Australian Fitzroy.) 



In 1910 E. Schwarz recognised four sub-species of M. agilis as follows : — 

 31. agilis, Gould, sensu stricfo, Arnhem Land ; M. agilis papuanus, Ptrs and 

 Doria, Southern Papua ; M. agilis jardinei De Vis., Northern Queensland ; 

 M. agilis auiescens Schw., W. Kimberley, West Australia. f 



In 1913 E. Lonnberg described 31. agilis nigrescens as a fifth subspecies, 

 the locality being Broome, North-west Australia. J 



The Stradbroke pelt agrees best with the large type sptcimcn of 3Iacropus 

 Jardinei, now somewhat faded, but it is decidedly hghter and oiily a very 

 :few long haii's \^ith dark tips are present. It is probable that this is due to 



* Oldfield Thomas P.Z.S., 1908 p. 792. 



t E. Schwarz, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (8), V. 1910, pp. 164-6. 



t E. Lonnberg, Ktmgl. Sv. Vet. Ak. Hgr., Bd. 52, No. 1, 1913. 



