ACCOUNTS OF EXTINCT, VANISHING, OR 

 THREATENED MAMMALS 



Order MARSUPIALIA: Marsupials 



Family DASYURIDAE: Dasyures, etc. 



This family, consisting of about 13 genera, is limited to Australia, 

 Tasmania, New Guinea, and certain smaller neighboring islands. 

 Of approximately 75 known forms, 14 call for discussion in the 

 present work. 



Freckled Marsupial Mouse 



ANTECHINUS APICALIS (J. E. Gray) 



Phascogale apicalis J. E. Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 1, vol. 9, p. 518, 1842. 



("Doubtless from Australasia" =. South-Western Australia, fide Iredale and 



Troughton, 1934, p. 6.) 

 FIGS.: Gould, 1863, vol. 1, pi. 39; Cabrera, 1919, pi. 5, fig. 2. 



This marsupial of Western Australia, little larger than a mouse, 

 does not seem to have been collected for more than 30 years and is 

 probably extinct. 



The general color is freckled reddish gray ; eye ring whitish ; under 

 parts dull white or yellowish; pouch hairs dark rufous; front and 

 outside of forearm rufous; rest of outer surface of limbs dull gray; 

 ears short; tail tapering, variegated like back, and tipped with black. 

 Head and body, 111-120 mm.; tail, 85-89 mm. (Thomas, 1888, 

 pp. 277-278.) 



Very little information concerning this species is on record, and 

 some of that is conflicting. Gould evidently gave it much too wide 

 a range in stating (1863, p. 46) that it "is very generally distributed 

 over every part of the colony of Western Australia." His actual 

 records are from the vicinity of Moore's River, Perth, and King 

 George's Sound. 



Thomas (1888, p. 278) records specimens from Albany and Vic- 

 toria Plains, Western Australia, and even from Queensland. 



Shortridge states (1910, p. 840; map, p. 842) that it is "confined 

 to the forest districts of the South-W T est, where it is apparently a 

 rare species." He records three specimens from Albany in the Perth 

 Museum. 



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