1420 THE POUCHED MAMMALS, OR MARSUPIALS 



bungari, Dr. Lumholtz, its discoverer, writes that it frequents the densest and most 

 inaccessible portions of the highest mountainous scrubs, where even the aborigines 

 are scarcely able to penetrate. From the marks of its claws on the trees of the more 

 open districts, the animal appeared to have been once common there, but is now 

 nearly exterminated by the blacks. When disturbed, these kangaroos are stated to 

 travel considerable distances, and they are also reported by the blacks to be most 

 commonly seen abroad on moonlight nights. Two or three are often found sleeping 

 in the same tree, and it is stated that they affect only one particular kind of tree, 

 which grows to a considerable height. In rainy weather, lower trees are selected. 

 The little banded wallaby {Lagostrophus fasciatus} , of Western Aus- 

 tralia, which is about the size of a hare, and is easily recognized by 

 w ciiiciDy 



the dark transverse bands crossing the hind-quarters, forms the single 



representative of a genus. It is specially characterized by the presence of long 

 bristly hairs on the hind-feet, which completely conceal the claws. The muzzle is 

 naked, and the ears are small and rounded. The skull is characterized by its nar- 

 row muzzle, and inflated auditory bulla; while there is no tusk, the two series of 

 upper incisor teeth meet in an angle, and the two halves of the lower jaw are welded 

 together at their union. These pretty little wallabies inhabit the scrub jungle and 

 the margins of swamps on the west coast of Australia and the small adjacent islands. 

 On the islands they form tunnels beneath the dense bushes by gnawing off the lower 

 branches on certain lines, and they can only be beaten out from their cover by the 

 aid of dogs. On the mainland they are said to skulk in the open like hares. 



The whole of the members of the family hitherto considered form a 

 single subfamily primarily characterized by the circumstance that the 

 three incisor teeth of the upper jaw are of nearly equal height, while 

 the tusk, or canine tooth, if present at all, is very minute. We now come to a 

 second group or subfamily, including a number of small forms known as rat kanga- 

 roos or potoroos, which differ in many important respects from the preceding. 

 These creatures, none of which are larger than an ordinary rabbit, are characterized 

 by having the first incisor tooth on each side of the upper jaw (as shown in the fig- 

 ures on pp. 1408 and 1410) considerably taller than either of the others, and narrow 

 and curved in form; while there is always a rather large and blunted upper tusk. 

 Then, again, whereas in the preceding subfamily, with the exception of Muller's 

 kangaroo and its allies, the permanent premolar tooth is comparatively short from 

 front to back, in the group under consideration the same tooth, as shown in the 

 aforesaid figures, is much elongated in this direction, and has a straight cutting 

 edge, and its two surfaces generally marked by vertical grooves and ridges. Some- 

 times, moreover, the same tooth may be bent slightly outward, instead of forming a 

 continuation of the line of the molars. The latter have blunt tubercles at their four 

 angles, instead of complete transverse ridges, and the last of the series is, instead of 

 being larger, always smaller than the one in front of it. The rat kangaroos are fur- 

 ther distinguished by their narrow fore-feet, in which the three middle toes are 

 much longer than the other two, with long, narrow, and slightly-curved claws; 

 whereas in the broader front paws of the preceding group, the whole five toes are 

 nearly equal in length, and have highly-curved claws. All the rat kangaroos have 



