president's address — SECTION D. 109 



occurs in South Victoria, though not recorded from this 

 locality in the British Museum Catalop^ue, 



Pseudochirus, including the phalangei-s, is rejiresented by 

 one peculiar species ( P. cooki) in Tasmania, whilst a 

 second (P. peregrinus) occurs in South Victoria, S. 

 Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. A third is 

 confined to W. Australia, 3 to Queensland, and 4 to New 

 Guinea. The 3 species, P. peregrinus, the common ring- 

 tailed phalanger, P. occidentalis, the western ring-tailed 

 phalanger, and P. cooki, the Tasmanian forms, are evidently 

 closely allied, but, according to Thomas, the Western Aus- 

 tralian is more closely alhed to the Tasmanian than to the 

 Eastern form, from which the one is separated by an 

 impassable desert, the other by Bass Straits. 



The common phalanger of the continent, Trichosurus 

 vulpecula, is represented by a climatic variety (imr. fulginosus) 

 in Tasmania, whose " size is markedly larger, and form stouter 

 and heavier than in the typical variety. Fur longer and 

 thicker," Phascolarctos has only one species, P. cinereus, 

 the Koala, or native bear of the continent, distributed through 

 Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, but curiously 

 absent from Tasmania. 



The family Phascolomyidae has but one genus C Phascolomys, 

 the wombat) with 3 species, of which one, P. mitchelli, the 

 common Australian wombat, is found in Victoria, New South 

 Wales and S. Australia ; a second, P. latifrons, the hairy- 

 nosed wombat, is peculiar to S. Australia and a third, P. 

 ursinus, is peculiar to Tasmania, but very similar to the 

 Victorian form from which it differs chiefly in its smaller 

 size, presenting thus, according to Thomas, " a remarkable 

 exception to the usual rule of size in Tasmanian animals." 



(b) Polgprotodontia.- — This sub-order includes 3 families, 

 of which 2, the Peramelidae and Dasyuridse are confined to 

 the Australasian region, and one, the Didelphyidae, to 

 America. The two former contain 10 genera, of which 6 are 

 represented in Tasmania, and 40 species, of which 9 are 

 found in Tasmania. 



There are 2 genera and 3 species peculiar to the island, 

 which, it will be noted, is proportionately much richer in 

 Polyprotodonts than in Diprotodonts. As in the case of the 

 latter, so in the former, all the species, 6 in number, which 

 it has in common with Victoria, are found in the southern 

 division of that colony. There are 7 species in Victoria not 

 found in Tasmania. Of these 4 are only found north of the 



