SUB-FOSSIL REMAINS FROM KING ISLAND. 
Sc win speaking of Kangaroo Island he says,* “ Nous y avons vu 
que trois espéces de mammiferes : l'une appé artient au joli genres 
des Dasyures,” and in connexion with the latter refers to a plate on 
which two Dasyures are drawn, the title of the plate being as 
follows :—‘* Nouvelle-Hollande : Nouvelle Galles du Sud. Dasyure 
a longue queue ( Dasyurus Macrourus, Geof.).” 
It is evident that Péron regarded the Kangaroo Island species 
as identical with the larger mainland form now known as Dasyurus 
maculatus, but he says nothing with regard to the two King Island 
species, and does not appear to have collected specimens. 
At the present two species of Dasyurus are known from 
Victoria and Tasmania, a somewhat larger form, J). maculatus, and 
a somewhat smaller one, D. viverrinus. Both of these are found 
in Victoria and Tasmania, the first-named species being more 
abundant in the island than on the mainland. During the visit of 
the Field Naturalists’ Club in 1887, D. macu/utus was reported as 
existing on King Island, but not D. viverrinus. 
Our collection of bones includes the remnants of twenty-five 
crania, and sixty lower jaws, one of which came from Deal Island. 
No trace of any other bone could be found. 
The crania and j jaws are clearly divisible into two sets, a larger 
and a smaller, indicating the existence of two species as recorded 
by Péron, who, unfortunately, gave no indication of their relative 
size. The question arises as to the relationship of these two 
species to those now existing in Australia and Tasmania. In our 
collection, twenty-one of the crania belong to the larger form, and 
four only to the smaller. Of the lower jaws, thirty-seven appear 
to belong to the larger, and twenty-nine to the smaller. The 
difference in size is not due to immaturity, the dentition of both 
series being the permanent one. 
In order to try and decide the relationship of the fossil forms, 
we have made a considerable number of measurements of skulls 
and lower jaws of recent specimens, the results of which are given 
in the following tables. 
In the following table the crania of the King Island specimens, 
and of a series of specimens of D. maculatus and D. viverrinus are 
grouped in accordance with their basal lengths :— 
MM. 
Basal length. 
80-90. | 90-100. | 100-105. | 105-110, | 110-115.) U5& 
| | over. 
King Island species 500 ah ao 2 1 1 3 6 3 
D. maculatus eee oe one Hej 3 4 F 25 
D. viverrinus ; 
~I 
~ 
* Soe: cit. p. 76. Pl. 63. 
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