ORDER MARSUPIALIA: MARSUPIALS 29 



ever, Krefft states (1871 [p. 40]) that the animal occurs in New 

 South Wales, near the Darling River, and Iredale and Troughton 

 (1934, p. 8) include Victoria in the range. 



On Williams River, Gilbert (in Gould, 1863, vol. 1, p. 39) records 

 the species as invading a storeroom. The type specimen was cap- 

 tured in that locality by a Domestic Cat. 



"Some species, notably the brush-tailed and the lesser brush- 

 tailed phascogales, are now rather scarce over the greater part of 

 their range, having been greatly reduced by disease, which swept 

 off large numbers of native animals in 1898-9-1900. Cats have also 

 been very destructive." (Le Souef and Burrell, 1926, p. 333.) 



Here we seem to have yet one more melancholy case of the virtual 

 disappearance of a species before any adequate knowledge of its life 

 history or even of its distribution was obtained. 



Slender-tailed Pouched Mouse; Gray Pouched Mouse; 



"Common" Pouched Mouse; Slender 



Mouse-Sminthopsis 



SMINTHOPSIS MURINA (Waterhouse) 



This animal seems to have disappeared over considerable por- 

 tions of its original wide range in Australia. It has been divided 

 into the following four subspecies: 



SMINTHOPSIS MURINA MURINA (Waterhouse) 



Phascogale murina Waterhouse, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1837, p. 76, 1838. 



("North of Hunter's River, New South Wales.") 

 FIGS.: Waterhouse, 1841, pi. 10; Gould, 1863, vol. 1, pi. 43; Lydekker, 1894, 



pi. 29 (subsp.?) ; Le Souef and Burrell, 1926, fig. 94. 



Fur short and soft ; general color above gray, with a faint yellow- 

 ish tint; feet, under parts, and face beneath eyes white; tail covered 

 with minute silvery-white hairs. Head and body, 76 mm.; tail, 

 65 mm. (Waterhouse, 1838, p. 76.) 



This form occurs in New South Wales and southern Queensland. 

 Waterhouse reported it from north of Hunter's River, New South 

 Wales, and Gilbert found it on the Severn River in the same state 

 (Gould, 1863, vol. 1, p. 50). It was perhaps this form that Gould 

 recorded (1863, vol. 1, p. 49 as Antechinus albipes) from the 

 Darling Downs of New South Wales. 



This little marsupial, if sufficiently abundant, would evidently 

 act as a check on one of the introduced rodent pests. "Mr. A. C. V. 

 Bligh, of Toowoomba, Queensland, reports S. murina as being 

 numerous at the same time as the common mouse (M. musculus) , 

 and feeding upon the latter" (Le Souef and Burrell, 1926, p. 355) . 



