The marsupial GENUS THALACOMYS. 



A Review of the Rabbit-Bandicoots; with the Description 



OF A New Species. 



By FREDERIC WOOD JONES, D.Sc, Hon. Curatok in Anthropology. 



Text figs. 352-860. 



The rabbit bandicoots, rabbit rats, or native rabl)its, con.stitnto a very well-defined 

 and extremely interesting little gronp of tbe syndactylous polj'protodonts. 



Ai the ])resent time it cannot be said that any species is at all common ; bnt 

 within the last twenty years certain of them have been ([nite abnndant is .snitable 

 country, even in the immediate proximity of such towns as Adelaide. Both to 

 the north and to the south of the city itself rabbit bandicoots lived in abundance 

 but littb' more than twenty yeai's ago, Ijut to-day the animal is completely 

 exterminat(Hl in practically all its old haunts. Pelts still come in small numbers 

 to the skin salerooms, but formei-ly the beautifully silky skins were regular items 

 in the markets of Adelaide. 



Fig-. :i.li.>. 'rji(thict))\njs Ukjo'Hs. Male s])(.'cinu"n fioiii Nalpa, South Australia, in the South 

 Australian Museum. About one-sixtli uatviral size. 



In South Australia the animals wei'e usually known as "pinkies," or in 

 some districts as ''pintoes." It is said that the name "pinkie" was given to the 

 members of the geuus Thtilaconii/s; in allusion to the naked flesh-coloured snout; 

 bnt the same name is also used to designate the Short-nosed Bandicoot (Isoodon 

 obesiiJiis) in certain parts of South Australia. In the Centre, rabbit bandicoots 

 are usually known as "thulkas" or "talkies," whi<'h is the white man's rendering 



