ORDER MARSUPIALIA: MARSUPIALS 53 



March 17, 1937) that it is "affected by fumigation of rabbit burrows 

 in agricultural areas." 



Finlayson (1930, p. 178; 1931, p. 161) records specimens from 

 north of the Musgrave Ranges, in the extreme north of South 

 Australia, and from two localities north of the Macdonnell Ranges 

 in Central Australia. 



E. Le G. Troughton writes (in Hit., April 16, 1937) that it "may 

 survive always in parts of the Centre, but should be given total 

 protection in the south-west as its destruction of rats and mice 

 far outweighs any slight damage it may do." 



New South Wales Bilby 



MACROTIS LAGOTIS CAMBRICA Troughton 



Macrotis lagotis cambrica Troughton, Australian Zool., vol. 7, pt. 3, p. 230, 

 1932. ("Bathurst," New South Wales.) 



This eastern subspecies, extinct in Victoria and last recorded 

 from New South Wales in 1912, apparently survives in uncertain 

 numbers in southern Queensland. 



It is about equal in size to the large western subspecies (lagotis) ; 

 the fur is shorter and more woolly ; upper parts more fuscous ; under 

 parts yellowish. Head and body, 390-500 mm.; tail, 248-278 mm. 

 (Troughton, 1932, p. 230.) 



According to Troughton (1932, p. 230; map, p. 231), it was 

 "originally distributed over inland New South Wales from the 

 Darling River (Bourke) in the west, across to near the Great 

 Dividing Range in the east (Bathurst and Ghoulburn) , south to the 

 Murray River and north to the Queensland border (Moree) ; prob- 

 ably extending into southern Queensland." 



Since 1892, fifteen specimens reached the Museum, making in all at least 

 twenty-two, of which the last was received from Moree in June, 1908; though 

 several are not definitely localised, there is no doubt that the entire series 

 came from within New South Wales. . . . Probably never very plentiful, 

 the rabbit-bandicoot was apparently distributed fairly evenly west of the 

 dividing range in the early days, and, unless mere coincidence, appears to 

 have been more abundant in some years as three specimens reached the 

 Museum in August, 1897, and again in 1903. There seems no doubt, however, 

 that the local race has vanished from the more settled areas, and that . . . 

 the Bilby is rapidly disappearing from New South Wales, or is at least faced 

 with a precarious existence in more desert regions. I am not aware of pelts 

 ever having been marketed to any extent in Sydney, . . . but no doubt num- 

 bers have been killed in rabbit traps, and wantonly for so-called sport, while 

 foxes must be contributing to the apparent annihilation within New South 

 Wales. 



The last record of the Bilby's occurrence in New South Wales, so far as I 

 am aware, is [that of] a pair under close observation in the rocky hills on 

 the Wagga Experimental Farm for about five years prior to 1912, when 



