EXISTING SPECIES OF THE GENUS PHASCOLOMYS. 
with Shaw’s Didelplis ursina. The figure that he gives is one of a 
brown variety, and was drawn from a stuffed specimen in the Paris 
Museum—presumably one of those captured during Baudin’s expe- 
dition. Lesson and Garnot, describing the zoological results of 
Duperry’s voyage in 1826, say*—‘ Nous ne trouvames qu’une seule 
peau de wombat ou phascolome a Sydney (didelphis ursina, Shaw ; 
phascolomys wombat, Pér. et Les.) animal qu’on n’observe que sur la 
céte sud et dans les petites iles du détroit de Bass.” 
In 1831, Owen, when describing the specimens of wombat in 
the collections of the Royal College of Surgeons, stated definitely 
that the distribution of Phascolomys Wombat was “ King Island and 
near Port Jackson,” and makes no reference at all to Tasmania. 
It is, we think, quite certain from the above records that before 
the year 1831 no wombat had been sent to Europe from Tasmania. 
With the solitary exception of the skin which Lesson and Garnot 
mention as found in Sydney in 1826, there is no record of a specimen 
actually secured on the mainland, and even in this instance there is 
no proof that the skin was that of a mainland animal. It is quite 
likely that it had been brought to Sydney from one of the Islands in 
Bass Strait. It is difficult to believe that no specimens were sent 
from New South Wales, but, if any were, no record of them appears 
to have been published, and, apparently, it was taken for granted that 
the wombats of King, Clarke, Cape Barren, and other islands in Bass 
Strait were identical with those of New South Wales ; indeed, Owen’s 
statement in regard to the distribution of Phascolomys Wombat, 
quoted above, makes this quite clear. 
In 1838, Ronald Gunn,§ one of the earliest naturalists in 
Tasmania, contributed to the Annals of Natural History a 
paper entitled “Notices of some Mammalia and Fish from 
Van Diemen’s Land,” and to this, Gray added some notes in 
which, referring to the wombat, he says—“I have seen Bass’ 
specimen, which is now in the museum of the Natural History 
Society of Newcastle-on-Tyne; it is the same as the one we now 
usually receive from Van Diemen’s Land, only discoloured by having 
been kept in spirit.” It is evident that this particular specimen 
must have been the one sent to England by Hunter, and not by Bass. 
In 1838, Owen described a mutilated sub-fossil cranium found 
by Mitchell in the Wellington Valley in New South Wales, under the 
name of Phascolomys mitchelli—this being the first occasion on which 
a distinct name was given to a mainland form.|| In his description, 
* Duperry. Voyage Antour du Monde. Zoologie par Mm. Lesson et Garnot, Tome 1., 1826 
p. 399. 
+ Cat. R.C.S., 1831. p. 78. 
t In 1831, a large wombat reached England, but whether it came from Tasmania or Aus- 
tralia is not known. This particular animal lived in the Zoological Society’s gardens for five 
years ; in 1836 it died, and its anatomy was described by Owen. 
§ Gunn. Ann. Nat. Hist. 1., p. 103, 1838. Gray’s note is on p. 107. 
|| Mitchell’s 7'tree Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, &c. Letter from Owen. 
dated May 8th, 1838, containing, inter alia, description of Phasc. mitchelli. 
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