BibUogra])hical Notice. 359 



at the end of each cell ; an elbowed discal line across each 

 wing : primaries with the external area broadly blackish, in- 

 terrupted at apex and on the second median interspace by 

 white quadrate spots ; fringe white : secondaries with crenate 

 white outer border, indicated by an internal blackish discal 

 streak ; black marginal dots less distinct than above : body 

 below white. Expanse of wings 1 inch 8 lines. 

 A well-defined species. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 



Researches on the Fossil Remains of the Extinct Mammals of Austra- 

 lia ; ivith a Notice of the Extinct Marsupials of England. By 

 Richard Owen, C.B., F.R.S. Two vols. 4to. Erxleben : 

 London, 1877. 



This work maj'^ be regarded as a supplementary volume to the ori- 

 ginal edition of Cuvier's ' Recherches sur lesOssemens Fossiles ' (4to, 

 1821). In that work but one extinct species had been referred to 

 the marsupial order, viz. the famous Didelphys gypsorum (vol. iii. 

 pi. Ixxi.), and the osteology of the existing species is not described 

 as in the case of the placental Mammalia of which the fossil evi- 

 dences are there so richly illustrated. The author of the j^resent 

 work has accordingly added descriptions aud figures of the osteology 

 and dentition of the existing Marsupialia to those of the fossil re- 

 mains of the extinct species : the characteristics of the bony struc- 

 ture and teeth of the wombats and kangaroos are shown in detail. 

 As in the great work of Cuvier, the several memoirs by which the 

 discoveries and determinations of the fossils were first made known 

 are reproduced with additional matter and in systematic order. A 

 chapter is premised on the fossil Marsupials of England, with figures 

 illustrative of twenty-eight species, referable to fifteen genera. Of 

 the extinct Marsupials which have left their remams in Rhsetic, 

 Oolitic, and Purbeck deposits in England, some exemplify or pre- 

 figure, in a singular and interesting manner, genera and species of 

 Marsupials which have left their remains in the comparatively re- 

 cent drift-deposits and in the caves of Australia. 



The author, quoting the remark of Cuvier, " Quant aux genres 

 propres a I'Australasie, on n'en avoit jamais decouvert parmi les 

 fossiles d'Europe " ('Recherches sur les Ossemens Eossiles,' 4to, 1821, 

 vol. iii. p. 292), remarks " it needed to go far below the tertiary 

 beds to find the mammalian fossils most allied to those of Australia " 

 (Preface, p. vi). He then states, " The teeth representing the 

 Rhaetic Microlestes find their nearest resemblance in the dispropor- 

 tionately small hind molars of Thylacoleo. The Plagiaidax of the 

 Purbeck beds pushes the correspondence to the shape and dispropor- 

 tionatelj" large size of the incisors and sectorials ; and the foremost 



25* 



