THE EXISTING SPECIES OF THE GENUS 
PHASCOLOMYS. 
By Baldwin Spencer, C.M.G., M.A., F.R.S., Hon. Director of the 
National Museum, and J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S., Curator of the 
Zoological Collections. 
(Plates 9, 10, 11.) 
In this paper we propose to deal principally with the question 
of the relation to one another of the species of Phascolomys that have 
been described as inhabiting Victoria, Tasmania, and the Islands of 
Bass Strait. At the present time, three existing species of the genus 
are recognised in Australia, viz. :—Ph. ursinus of Tasmania and the 
Islands of Bass Strait, Ph. mitchelli of Victoria, New South Wales, 
and South Australia, and Ph. latifrons of South Australia. The 
latter with its almost silky fur, its hairy nose, and strongly marked 
post-orbital processes, is a very clearly defined species. 
Until quite recently it was supposed that the Bass Island forms 
were extinct, and Ph. wrsinus has been known only by specimens 
from Tasmania. Mr. Oldfield Thomas,* describing the latter animal, 
says—‘‘ This species, the oldest known of the group, presents a 
remarkable exception to the usual rule of size in Tasmanian animals, 
these being generally larger instead of smaller than their continental 
allies. The species seems to be well distinguished from Ph. mitchelli 
by this character of size, but otherwise there appears to be no 
difference of importance between the two.” 
The investigation of a collection of sub-fossil bones from King 
Island has caused us to inquire into the history of this species, an 
outline of which we propose to give. 
During the year 1797, a ship called the Sydney Cove ran on shore 
in Bass Strait, between Preservation and Rum Islands, which 
form part of the Furneaux group, and lie off the south-west coast 
of Flinders Island. Hunter, then Governor of New South Wales, 
sent a boat down from Sydney to rescue the ship-wrecked crew, and 
this party brought back with it the first found wombatf. It only 
lived six weeks in captivity, and in August, 1798, Hunter sent its 
body to England “ for the inspection of the learned members of the 
Literary and Philosophical Society of Neweastle-upon-Tyne.” 
* Brit. Mus. Cat. 1888, p. 217. 
+ It is, however, difficult to say positively whether this first wombat was brought back to 
Sydney by the first expedition sent to rescue the crew of the Sydney Cove or by Flinders himself 
when he went down on a second expedition to the scene of the wreck in the schooner Francis, 
leaving Port Jackson on February 1, 1798, and returning on March 9th. 
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