﻿34 ALLEN'S naturalist's LIBRARY. 



inhabits scrub-jungle, although occasionally seen on the open 

 plains. 



XIV. CAPE YORK WALLABY. MACROPUS COXENI. 



Halniatiiriis coxeni. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1866, p. 220. 

 Halinaturus gazella, De Vis, Proc. Roy.' Soc. Queensland, vol. 



i., p. no (i )8i\ 

 Macrjpus coxeni, Thomas, Cat. Marsup. Brit. Mus., p. 44 



(1888). 



As this is the first representative of the group of Small 

 Wallabies, we may first notice how the members of that assem- 

 blage differ from the Large Wallabies just described. All the 

 members of the group are characterised by their light and elegant 

 build and small size, several of them being no larger than a 

 rabbit. In all the muzzle is naked, and in many of them has 

 an upward naked extension, with the hair growing downwards 

 on each side of it. In the skull the foramina in the front of the 

 palate are very small, while the unossified vacuities in the hinder 

 part of the same are of great size, being usually separated from 

 one another in the middle line merely by a narrow bar of bone. 

 The outermost upper incisor tooth is relatively smaller than in 

 the large Wallabies, and carries a single well-marked notch, 

 usually placed close to the posterior end of the crown. 



This group ranges much further into the tropics than do 

 either the true Kangaroo or the large Wallabies, one species 

 inhabiting the Aru Islands, while a second extends through 

 New Guinea into the New Britain group. 



With these preliminary obseivations on the group, we revert 

 to the Cape York Wallaby. 



Characters — Size small ; form light and agile; naked portion of 

 muzzle broad to the lip, the latter little developed; fur of medium 

 Iciigih, thick and soft, its direction on the neck variable, some- 



