﻿THE ROCK-WALLABIES. 45 



Characters. — Size medium ; form slender and light ; fur long, 

 soft, close, and of a rather woolly texture. General colour 

 light grey, with the under-parts yellowish-grey ; a well-defined 

 dark whisker-mark, with a whitish or yellowish cheek-stripe 

 below ; a narrow brown or black stripe from the back of the 

 head to the middle of the back ; ears short, with the' inside, 

 base, and extreme tip of outside yellow, and the remainder 

 brown ; a prominent black or brown mark behind the elbow, 

 followed by a white stripe down the hip ; front of knee brown, 

 and connected by a brown band with the shoulder-spot ; legs 

 and feet grey ; toes black ; tail grey for the basal, and black 

 for the terminal half. Length of head and body about 24 

 inches ; of tail 17 inches. 



Distribution. — West Australia. 



Habits. — Differing from the common Brush-tailed Wallaby in 

 its smaller size, the greyer fore-quarters, the more distinct black 

 mark on the back, the black and white markings on the flank, 

 and the somewhat less bushy tail, this West Australian re- 

 presentative of the genus is only to be met with in those parts 

 of the interior which are rocky and well supplied with caverns. 

 In disposition it is remarkably shy, seldom venturing out dur- 

 ing the day, and feeding at night on the open patches 

 of grass which occur here and there among the rocks. 

 According to Gould, it never strays more than two or three 

 hundred yards from its retreats among the rocks ; while, when 

 alarmed, it leaps with the most surprising agility and speed from 

 rock to rock. 



in. SHORT-EARED ROCK-WALLABY. PETROGALE BRACHYOTIS. 



Alacropus {Felrogale) brachyotis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1840, 



p. 129. 

 Petrogale brachyotis, Gould, Monogr. Macropodidae, pi. vi. 



(1841); Thomas, Cat. Marsup. Brit. Mus., p. 69 (1888). 



