﻿1 68 Allen's naturalist's library. 



Characters. — Size medium ; fur coarse. Gene':al colour 

 freckled reddish-grey ; under-parts dull white or yellowish ; a 

 whitish ring round each eye. Ears short and rounded, clothed 

 on both surfaces with short grey hairs. Front and outside of 

 fore leg rufous, remainder of outer surface of limbs, as well 

 as the feet, grey ; soles of feet granulated, the pad of the hallux 

 rarely divided. Tail short, hairy, coloured above like the back, 

 inferiorly grey or yellowish-grey, and the extreme tip black. 

 Eight teats. Length of head and body about 5 inches ; of tail 

 32^ inches. 



Distriljution. — West, and probably also North, Australia. 



Habits. — This Pouched Mouse is found not uncommonly in 

 the neighbourhood of the Swan River and King George's 

 Sound, and is known to the settlers of the last-named district 

 by the name of the " Dibbler." A correspondent of Gould, 

 who was fortunate enough to find a female with young, states 

 that these were seven in number, and quite naked and blind. 

 He observes that above the teats of the mother there " is a 

 very small fold of skin, from which the long hairs of the under- 

 surface spread downwards, and effectually cover and protect 

 the young. This fold in the skin of the abdomen is the only 

 approximation to a pouch which I have found in any of the 

 members of the genus. The young are very tenacious of life ; 

 those mentioned above lived nearly two days attached to the 

 mamniK of the dead mother." 



III. CHESTNUT-NECKED POUCHED MOUSE. PHASCOLOGALE 



THORBECKIANA. 



Phascologak melas, Schlegel and Miiller, Verhandl. Nat. Ges., 



p. 149 (1839-44). 

 Phascologak thorbeckiaiia, Schlegel, Ned. Tijdschr. Dierk., vol. 



iii., p. 257 (1866); Thomas, Cat. Marsup. Brit. Mus., p, 



278 (1888). 



