﻿THE PIG-FOOTED BANDICOOT. 1 47 



Characters. — Size small; form delicate; fur coarse and straight, 

 but not spiny. Ears thinly haired, dull chestnut-brown behind, 

 darkening towards the tip. General colour coarse grizzled 

 grey, with a tinge of fawn ; under-parts white. Limbs long 

 and slender ; tail short, black above, grey on the sides and 

 beneath. Length of head and body about lo inches ; of tail 

 4 inches. 



Distribution. — Western New South Wales and Victoria, and 

 South and West Australia. 



Habits. — First described from an accidentally mutilated 

 example, this curious animal was supposed to be tail- 

 less, and was, therefore, named Choii'opus ecatidatus^ but 

 on the acquisition of other specimens, showing the pre- 

 sence of a well-developed tail, the name was very properly 

 changed to castanotis, in allusion to the chestnut colour of the 

 ears. In size the Pig-footed Bandicoot may be compared to a 

 small Rabbit. Writing of its first discovery in 1836, Mitchell 

 observes that " the most remarkable incident of this day's 

 journey was the discovery of an animal of which I had seen 

 only a head in a fossil state in the limestone caves of the 

 Wellington Valley, where, from its very singular form, I sup- 

 posed it to belong to some extinct species. The chief pecu- 

 liarity then observed was the broad head and very long slender 

 snout, which resembled the narrow neck of a wide bottle ; but 

 in the living animal the absence of a tail was still more re- 

 markable. The feet, and especially the fore legs, were also 

 singularly formed, the latter resembling those of a Pig; and the 

 Marsupial opening was downwards and not upwards, as in the 

 Kangaroo and others of that class of animals. This quadruped 

 was discovered by the natives on the ground ; but on being 

 chased it took refuge in a hollow tree, from which they took it 

 alive, all of them declaring that they had never before seen an 

 animal of the kind. This was when the party had com- 



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