DASYURUS. 17 
4. Dasyurus GRAcILIS, Ramsay (1888). 
Slender Native Cat. 
Size small; form light and graceful. Fur short, close, and 
somewhat harsh to the touch. General color above and below 
deep blackish-brown, spotted with white, the spots on the sides 
and on the basal third of the tail largest and sometimes confluent. 
Ears rather short, thinly haired proximally outside, the inside 
with a tuft of long hairs on the anterior margin. Hallux present. 
Claws long and powerful. Tail long, slender, the terminal inch 
tufted, colored like the body. Mamme? 
Dimensions..—Head and body thirteen inches; tail nine and a 
half inches. 
Habitat.—Bellenden-Ker Range, Northern Queensland. 
Type.—In the Australian Museum, Sydney. 
Reference.—Ramsay, P.L.S. N.S. Wales, (2) iii. p. 1296 (1888). 
Note.—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 Dasyure as large as or even 
larger than the southern D. maculatus, I should have been inclined 
to consider 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 shew more 
distinct affinities to the Papuan than to the restricted Australian 
Subregion ; for instance the Rhododendron flourishes in a wild 
state in these mountains only of Australia, having evidently 
travelled round from the Himalayas along the highlands of New 
Guinea, and so down the northern Queensland Ranges; similarly 
such typical Papuan forms as Dendrolagus among Mammals, 
Casuarius among Birds, Papuina among Molluscs, Pericheta 
among Earthworms, with many others, have found their way into 
our fauna. 
5. Dasyurus macuuatus, Kerr, sp. (1792). 
Spotted-tailed Native Cat. 
Size large ; form stout and heavy. Fur thick and close. General 
color above dark brown with a rufous or orange tinge, but never 
black, with large white spots ; below white or pale yellow. Ears 
rather short and very thinly haired. Hallux present. Claws 
large and powerful. Tail very long, brown or rufous brown, 
spotted like the body. Mamme six. 
Dimensions.—Head and body about twenty-five inches ; tail 
about nineteen inches. 
B 
