EXISTING SPECIES OF bite ue FRABOOLOMAY: 
The specimen sent to Newcastle by Governor Hunter in 1798 
belonged to this species, and it was to this that Shaw referred when 
he described the animal that he calls Didelphys ursina. At a later 
time other writers described the same species under other generic 
and specific names. In 1803, Geoffroy, ignorant of the fact that a 
specimen had been sent to England five years earlier, and briefly 
described by Shaw under the name of Didelphys wrsina, proposed the 
generic name Phascolomys. The true designation of the wombat 
of the Bass Strait Islands is therefore Phascolomys ursinus, Shaw ; 
and the following names, all of which have at one time or another 
been applied to the Island species, are synonyms of the former :— 
Wombatus fossor, Desmarest (1803). 
Phascolomys wombat, Péron et Lesueur (1808). 
Amblotis fossor, Uliger (1811). 
Phascolomys fusca, Iliger (1811). ; 
Phascolomys vombatus, Leach (1815). 
Phascolomys bassii, Lesson (1827). 
The question now arises as to the relationship of Phascolomys 
ursinus, the mainland species, and the Tasmanian species. There 
is no question as to the specific distinction of the hairy-nosed wom- 
bat, Phascolomys latifrons, of South Australia. The remaining main- 
land form, Phascolomys mitchelli, is closely allied to the Tasmanian 
form, which again, up to the present time, has been supposed to be 
identical with the Bass Strait Island species, that is Phascolomys 
ursinus. In the following tables we give the measurements of the 
skull, teeth series, &c., of a series of Phascolomys from Bass Strait 
Islands, Tasmania, and Victoria, as well as a certain number of 
Phascolomys latifrons. 
Table 1.—Skull Measurements of Phascolomys from King and 
Deal Islands. 
Deal Island 
Number of Specimen .. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. % 8. Specimens. 
Adult. Juv. 
Basal length +» | 180 «. | 182.65 | 121 He: oe bie: ae ate he 
Greatest breadth  .. | 106 99 107 103 105 105 104 105 102 82 
Nasal length 55 ate 54 46 51 Ar 8 53 53 = 
» greatest breadth | 40 a dA 39.5] 41 Ay .. | 39.5] 39 30 
» least breadth ..| 11 ta 15 13 12.5 oe A 14 13 9 
Interorbital breadth 40 38 47 42 41 42 43 41 41 5 
Breadth between tips 
of postorbital eC 
cesses an | 43 39 48.5] 44.5] 42 43 46 44 42 
Constriction -- | 838 32 36 33.5 | 34 33 36.5] 30.5| 36 on 
Palate length .. | 84 74 81 a 77 Be aa 80 77 ~«2459 
Diastema length -- | 20.6] 27 30 26 26.5 “a es 31 25 18 
Palatine foramen... 9 8.5] 10 7.5 7.5 ae ate 9 5.5 6 
Basi-cranial axis -.| 42 ea 45 41 of Pe 40 PY oa RRS 
Basi-facial axis ot 81 90 83 82 ne he 83 83 63 
Facial index 216.5 -- |200 | 202.5 ay Fi % a a or 
Length of tooth series | 45 40 43 42 43 44.5) 44.5) 41.8) 43 35 
| 49 J 
3981.—p. 
