﻿tHE TRUE BANDICOOT. i^^ 



long, soft, and silky. General colour pale yellowish-fawn; 

 under-parts and limbs white. Ears thinly cloLhed with fine 

 silvery hairs ; greater portion of soles of hind feet hairy. Tail 

 moderate, slender, tapering, short-haired, and, except on the 

 upper surface of the terminal third, uniformly white. 



Distribution. — Probably Central or North-Central Australia. 



This interesting species is only known from a specimen 

 of a very young male preserved in the collection of the 

 British Museum. While agreeing in all other essential features 

 with the typical representative of the genus, this species makes 

 a remarkable approximation in the structure of its upper teeth 

 to the genus Perame/es, and thus serves to indicate that the 

 Rabbit-Bandicoots are in all probability a specialised oifshoot 

 therefrom. 



THE TRUE BANDICOOTS. GENUS PERAMELES. 



jPerame/es, Geoffr., Bull. Soc. Philom., vol, iii., No. 80, p. 

 249 (1803). 



Form varying from a stout and clumsy to a light and delicate 

 figure ; muzzle long and Pig-like ; ears variable in length ; 

 fore feet with the first and fifth toes short and clawless, and 

 the three middle ones subequal, with powerful curved claws ; 

 hind feet with the first toe (hallux) short and clawless, the 

 second and third toes with flat twisted nails, the fourth long 

 and powerful, with a stout pointed claw, and the fifth similar 

 but smaller. Tail tapering, short-haired, or nearly naked. Six 

 or eight teats. Usually five pairs of upper, and three of lower 

 incisor teeth ; upper molars either triangular or quadrangular, 

 with numerous sharp cusps. 



The true Bandicoots, of which there are upwards of some 



