ORDER MARSUPIALIA: MARSUPIALS 35 



latus; tail long, terminal half black; under parts whitish. Head 

 and body, 15 inches; tail, 11.5 inches. (Gould, 1841a, p. 151.) 



The former range of this animal extended from Victoria and 

 South Australia through New South Wales to Queensland but 

 apparently did not include the coast region of the southeast or the 

 extreme north. 



According to Gould (1863, vol. 1, p. 58), the species (including 

 both subspecies) "inhabits the whole of the southern portion of the 

 country from Moreton Bay [Queensland] on the east to Swan 

 River on the west." It "appears to be exclusively confined to the 

 regions on the interior side of the hills, the specimens I have seen 

 having been procured on the Liverpool Plains in New South Wales, 

 the Murray Scrub in South Australia, and beyond the ranges of 

 Swan River on the western coast." 



In Victoria it was always confined to the northwestern corner. 

 The last known record was in 1857, and the species is now extinct 

 in that state. (C. W. Brazenor, in Hit., March 3, 1937.) 



In South Australia there is no record other than that of Gould 

 and a specimen listed in the British Museum Catalogue of 1888. 

 "Men who have been professionally interested in the fauna of the 

 State for a period of forty years are unaware of any examples being 

 taken in South Australia proper. Unless it still lingers near to the 

 northern limits of the State, it must probably be regarded as extinct 

 in South Australia." (Jones, 1923, pp. 93-94.) 



In the Dawson Valley of Queensland, in 1905, it "was noticed to 

 be suddenly numerous, but it completely vanished by 1906" (Fin- 

 layson, 1934, p. 225) . It is represented in the Queensland Museum 

 merely by two specimens without precise localities (Longman, 1930, 

 p. 62). 



The eastern subspecies has very likely suffered in the same way 

 as the western, which was "killed off as much as possible in the 

 agricultural and more thickly populated districts on account of 

 being so destructive to poultry" (Shortridge, 1910, pp. 838-839). 

 Hoy (1923, p. 165) contributes information on an important enemy: 

 "I . . . am told that domestic cats frequently kill and drag home 

 adult native cats (Dasyurus viverrinus, D. geoffroyi, and D. hallu- 

 catus)" Other possible causes underlying the sudden fluctuations 

 in numbers of the species and its general disappearance over most 

 of its range, have not been definitely explained. 



[The larger western subspecies (D. g. fortis Thomas) still occurs 

 commonly in the southwest of Western Australia (Shortridge, 1910, 

 pp. 837-839; Glauert, 1933, p. 18, and in litt., March 17, 1937). 

 Some representative of the species perhaps fortis is reported from 

 Central Australia but as nowhere common there (Finlayson, 19356, 



