838 GEORGINA SWEET. 



median vaginal canals may communicate with one another. 

 In the possession of this communication Notoryctes is quite 

 unlike the young Perameles [4, p. 54], young Dasyurus 

 [6, p. 371], Myrmecobius [5, p. 52G], or the young Tricho- 

 surus [5, p. 528], etc., and more like Petaurus [5, p. 526] or 

 Acrobates [5, p. 525]. 



It is, however, normal in the termination of the median 

 vaginae " blindly in the connective tissue between the 

 posterior ends of the lateral vaginal canals, and in compara- 

 tively close proximity to the urogenital sinus.'^ The anterior 

 limb of each vagina (text-figure, and PL 20, fig. 14, a.v.c.) 

 passes forwards from the opening of the uterine neck. It is 

 very short, but wider and thinner walled than either the neck 

 of the uterus or the lateral vagina. It lies laterally to the 

 uterine neck of its own side, and very soon opens into a fair- 

 sized expansion (text-figure, and PI. 20, fig. 13, vag.c.) 

 corresponding to the much larger vaginal c£ecum on either 

 side in Perameles, its anterior border in Notoryctes being 

 situated at about half the length of the uterine necks. In 

 Notoryctes, moreover, in contradistinction to Perameles, the 

 vaginal caeca being smaller, never lose their close relationship 

 to the uterine necks. Each lateral vagina (text-figure, 

 and P]. 20, figs. 14 — 16, l.v.c.) runs back as a small, 

 thick-walled, straight, or slightly-curved tube laterally to the 

 anterior limb of the vagina and the median vaginal canal, 

 and separated from the latter by the ureter (text-figure, 

 and PL 20, figs. 14 — 16, ur.), which comes here to lie more 

 ventrally than in its anterior part. Thus the whole of these 

 tubes in this region, i. e. the median vaginal canals, the 

 ureters, and the lateral vaginae, lie in the same horizontal 

 line ventral to the rectum and dorsal to the bladder (PL 20, 

 figs. 14 and 15). 



As in other allied forms, there is here a urogenital strand 

 which contains anteriorly the necks of the uteri, the anterior 

 limbs of the vaginae, the vaginal caeca, and the lateral vaginae, 

 and more posteriorly the median vaginal canals, the ureters, 

 and the lateral vaginae, with the hinder half of the bladder 



