﻿THE PREHENSILE-TAILED RAT-KANGAROO. 67 



tail thinly covered with pale yellowish hairs, closest on the 

 under side of the tip ; centre of chest naked and glandular. 

 Length of head and body about i8 inches; of tail 14 inches. 

 Distribution. — South Australia. 



THE PREHENSILE-TAILED RAT-KANGAROOS. 

 GENUS BETTONGIA. 



Beftongta, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. i., p. 584 (1837). 



Nose wholly naked; ears very short and rounded; fore 

 claws long and strong ; hind feet longer than head, with the 

 naked soles coarsely granulated ; tail more or less prehensile, 

 thickly haired, with a more or less distinctly marked crest. 

 Last premolar tooth long and stout, with from seven to fifteen 

 distinct oblique grooves ; molars squared, with four tubercles, 

 the last of the series much the smallest of the four. 



Externally the four species of this genus are remarkably 

 similar, — so much so that it is difficult to distinguish them by 

 appearance alone. There are, however, very well-marked points 

 of difference in the skulls and teeth. These creatures are the 

 only ground-dwelling Mammals with prehensile tails ; the latter 

 being used to carry bunches of grasses and sticks, which are 

 held by the tail being bent down over and round them. 



I. LESUEUR's rat-kangaroo. BETTONGIA LESUEURI. 



Hypsipryinnus lesueuri, Quoy and Gaimard, Voyage Uranie, 



Zool., p. 64 (1824). 

 Hypsiprymnus grayi^ Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1840, p. 178. 

 Belto7igia grayi, Gray, in Grey's Australia, Appendix, vol. ii., 



p. 403 (1841). 

 Peraineles harveyi^ Waterhouse, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1842, p. 47. 

 Bettongia lesueuri^ Thomas, Cat. Marsup. Brit. Mus., p. 112 



(1888). 



