26 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



On the other hand, Glauert states (1933, p. 19) that the species 

 is not represented in the West Australian Museum at Perth and is 

 now probably extinct. 



Furthermore, despite the various specimens recorded by Gould, 

 Krefft, Thomas, and Shortridge, E. Le G. Troughton writes (in litt., 

 April 16, 1937) that "this species is not represented in the Perth 

 Museum, and is probably known only from the type in the British 

 Museum, and one in the Australian Museum. Apparently extinct or 

 represented by small colonies only." Iredale and Troughton 

 (1934, p. 6) limit the range to "South -Western Australia," omitting 

 Queensland. 



The species was probably either neutral or beneficial in its habits, 

 for Gilbert (in Gould, 1863, p. 46) found the remains of insects in 

 the stomachs he examined. 



No particular reason for its extinction seems to have been sug- 

 gested, but the generally adverse conditions now facing the smaller 

 marsupials of Australia are doubtless sufficient to account for it. 



Large Brush-tailed Phascogale; Brush-tailed Pouched Mouse 



PHASCOGALE TAPOATAFA TAPOATAFA (Meyer) 



Viverra tapoataja Meyer, Zool. Entdeck., p. 28, 1793. (Based upon "The 



Tapoa Tafa" of White, Jour. Voy. New South Wales, p. 281, pi. 58, 1790; 



type locality, Sydney, New South Wales.) 

 SYNONYM: Didelphis penicillata Shaw (1800). 

 FIGS.: Waterhouse, 1841, pi. 8; Gould, 1845, vol. 1, pi. 31; Lydekker, 1894, 



pi. 28; Jones, 1923, p. 99, fig. 60; Le Souef and Burrell, 1926, fig. 93; 



Fleay, 1934, pis. 19, 20. 



Though very considerably reduced in numbers, this animal still 

 maintains itself in various localities through its wide range over 

 the southern parts of Australia. 



Form stout and strong; general color finely grizzled pale gray; 

 muzzle with indistinct darker stripe; ears very large, thin, nearly 

 naked; under parts white or pale gray; pouch hairs dull rufous, 

 tipped with white; terminal three-fifths of tail with a thick black 

 brush. Head and body, 240 mm.; tail, 225 mm. (Thomas, 1888, 

 pp. 295-296.) 



The general range is "southern Australia, from south Queensland 

 to Western Australia" (Iredale and Troughton, 1934, p. 7) . 



Though once a familiar animal to settlers whose homes were in the more 

 wooded districts, P. penicillata is unknown to the rising generation of country 

 people. ... It seems astonishing that so small an animal could ever have 

 been a real menace to the poultry run of the settler, and yet it is credited 

 with being a determined slayer of chickens, and one which killed not merely 

 to appease its appetite. Many of the older residents in South Australia have 

 caught the animal red-handed, and as with the Native Cat, it seems a re- 



