LIST OF AUSTRALASIAN AND AVSTEO-PACIFIC MV HID AE.— LONGMAN. 23 



LIST OF AUSTRALASIAN AND AUSTRO-PACIFIC 



MURIDAE. 



By Heber a. Longman, 



At the present time any worker on the Austrahan rodents has to face con- 

 siderable difficulties owing to the need for searching through a very numerous series 

 of articles in various jjubHcations. With the exception of the necessarily brief refer- 

 ences in the Catalogue of Australian Mammals by J. Douglas Ogilby, pubhshed in 

 1892 by the Australian Museum, and the descriptions and illustrations in Lucas and 

 Le Souef's popular work, " The Animals of Australia" (1909), there have been no 

 attempts to issue a consecutive hst of our rodents. From time to time Oldfield Thomas, 

 of the British Museum, has dealt with distinct groups, and thanks to the efforts of 

 that well-known authority there has been a useful process of what may be termed 

 ''straightening out." It is hoped that later on some central expert will prepare a com- 

 plete and comprehensive catalogue, but in the meantime the publication of a list with 

 references may be welcomed. It has also been thought advisable to refer in some 

 cases to associated Hterature apart from the purely systematic work. With a few 

 exceptions, the writer has made no attempt to reprint generic or specific descriptions, 

 as in the majority of cases abridgments are apt to be misleading. 



The interest attaching to the Austrahan rodents has been dwarfed by the 

 special prominence given to our marsupial fauna. Some of the earher writers, indeed, 

 looked upon the endemic rodents as being almost negUgible. But the presence of 

 such distinctive genera as Hydromys, Xeromys, and Mastacomys stultifies the old 

 view, whilst the evolution of the characteristic Jerboa-like forms of the central districts 

 ofPers a fascinating problem to students. The theory which associates our mammalian 

 fauna wdth that of South America, through antarctic connections which hnked the 

 southern lands before the evolution of the more characteristically placental mammals, 

 does not account for the existence of about fifty avitochthonous species of rodents 

 in AustraUa and Tasmania. Nor can these rodents all be disposed of as recent immi- 

 grants. The presence of several highly specialised marsupials in the north-eastern 

 districts and in adjacent Pacific islands is another interesting factor. At present the 

 biotal evidence, particularly when supplemented by that of fossil forms, is so complex 

 that varjdng views may be emphasised by giving prominence to certain points. The 

 problem is too great to be adequately dealt with here, but it may be noted that on 

 herpetological evidence alone there are pronounced Austrahan affinities with Papua, 

 Ceram, Timor, and several other East Indian Islands. When all the facts come to be 

 critically marshalled, we may find the truer key to the origin of our mammals (mar- 

 supials as well as rodents) in northern land connections with continental associations 

 in the past. 



Occasionally rodents attract attention by their abundance, and the antipathy 

 aroused by plagues of rats or mice generally results in a strenuous campaign of exter- 

 mination. So far as Queensland is concerned, an article by E. Palmer, " Notes on a 



