THE DASYURES. 161 
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 tip, 
and coloured like the body. Length of head and body 13 
inches ; of tail g} 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 far 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 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, Casuarius 
among Birds, Pafuzna among Molluscs, Pericheta among Earth- 
worms, with many others, have found their way into the 
_ Australian fauna.” 
| 
lil, COMMON DASYURE. DASYU' US VIVERRINUS. 
Didelphis viverrinus, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vel. i. pt. 2, p. 491 
(1800). 
3 M 
