﻿THE RUFOUS RAT-KANGAROOS. 7 1 



rounded, so that its detection is a matter of some difficulty. 

 When inhabited, the entrance of the nest is closed with grass, 

 dragged in by its occupants. 



Although generally nocturnal, when disturbed, this species 

 may occasionally be seen abroad during the day. Krefft writes : 

 "It is not very quick, and is easily caught, even by com- 

 mon dogs. I have from time to time kept numbers of these 

 animals in captivity in an enclosure of pine-logs about seven 

 feet high, which they used to climb with a nimbleness truly 

 astonishing, and thus often escaped. During the daytime I 

 always noticed these creatures crouching in some corner fast 

 asleep, with the tail brought forward between the hind legs, 

 the head between the paws." 



THE RUFOUS RAT-KANGAROOS. GENUS ^PYPRYMNUS. 

 yEpyprymnuSy Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1875, p. 59. 



Nose partially hairy ; ears rather long ; front claws very 

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

 naked soles narrow and coarsely granulated ; tail evenly haired, 

 without trace of crest. Last premolar long and narrow, with 

 some seven or eight vertical grooves, but lacking the internal 

 basal ledge found in Potorous. Molar teeth oblong, less dis- 

 tinctly tuberculated and more ridged than in the other genera 

 of the sub-family, and their decrease in size from the first to the 



last less strongly marked. 1 



\ 



1 



I. RUFOUS RAT-KANGAROO. ^PYPRYMNUS RUFESCENS. 



Bettongia rufescens, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. i., p. 584 



(1837). 

 JHypsiprym?ius melanotisy Ogilby, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1838, p. 



62. 



