﻿tHE DASYURES. t6l 



Externally at the base, internally with a tuft of long hairs at the 

 front edge. Hind feet with the first toe, or hallux ; claws long 

 and powerful. Tail long, slender, tufted at the extreme lip, 

 and coloured like the body. Length of head and body 13 

 inches; of tail 9^ inches. 



Distribution. — Bellenden Ker Range, Northern Queensland. 



Of this reputed species, which was described after the Brit- 

 ish ^Museum Catalogue of Marsupials was written, Mr. Ogilby 

 remarks that " were it not for the indisputably adult dentition of 

 the unique specimen on which Dr. Ramsay has founded his 

 new species, and that evidence, presumably reliable, points to 

 the existence in the same district of a Spotted-tailed Dasyureas 

 large as or even larger than the southern D. mamlatus, I should 

 have been inclined to treat this specimen as merely an aborted 

 tropical form of that species. Until, however, further research 

 has undeniably proved the presence there of two so widely 

 separated races it is perhaps better to keep them apart. It is 

 worth mentioning that both in its fauna and flora the Bellenden 

 Ker Ranges show more distinct affinities to the Papuan than 

 to the restricted Australian sub-region. For instance, the rho- 

 dodendron flourishes in a wild state in these mountains of 

 Australia only, having evidently travelled round from the 

 Himalayas along the highlands of New Guinea, and so down 

 the Northern Queensland ranges: similarly such typically 

 Papuan forms as Dendrolagus among Mammals, Casuarhis 

 among Birds, Papuina among Molluscs, PerichcEta among Earth- 

 worms, with many others, have found their way in:;o the 

 Australian fauna." 



III. COMMON DASYURE. DASYURUS VIVERRINUS. 



Didclph's viverrinuSj Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. i., pt. 2, p. 491 

 (1800). 

 2 M 



