58 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



The fox and the rabbit have probably been decisive factors in 

 the depletion or disappearance of this animal. 



Eastern Pig-footed Bandicoot 



CHAEROPUS ECAUDATUS ECAUDATUS (Ogilby) 



Perameles ecaudatus Ogilby, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1838, p. 25, 1838. (Left 

 (south) bank of the Murray River, near the junction with the Murrum- 

 bidgee River, in Victoria. Not New South Wales, as stated by Iredale 

 and Troughton (1934, p. 21). Cj. Mitchell, 1838, vol. 2, p. 131.) 



FIGS.: Gould, 1845, vol. 1, pi. 6 (central fig.); Jones, 1924, p. 167, fig. 124. 



This unique little animal has apparently vanished from eastern 

 Australia and southern South Australia; possibly it maintains a 

 slight foothold (as one subspecies or the other) in Central Australia. 



Ears long, elliptical, and nearly naked; muzzle much attenu- 

 ated; body about the size of a small rabbit, and the fur very 

 much of the same quality and color as in that animal; two toes 

 on forefeet, similar to those of a pig; tail [accidentally] wanting 

 (Ogilby, 1838, pp. 25-26). General color coarsely grizzled gray, 

 with a tinge of fawn; under parts white; limbs long and slender; 

 tail black above, gray below and on sides. Head and body, 250 

 mm.; tail, about 100 mm. (Thomas, 1888, pp. 251-252.) 



The former range included the interior parts of Queensland, New 

 South Wales, and Victoria; also South Australia. The systematic 

 status of the Central Australian animal is apparently not settled, 

 but in coloration it is said by Spencer (1896, p. 17) to resemble 

 the western subspecies, C. e. occidentalis. 



"The quaint and singularly gentle Pig-footed Bandicoot which 

 had been discovered by Mitchell in 1836 was reported by Krefft 

 twenty years later as exceedingly rare and disappearing as fast as 

 the native population" (Troughton, 1932, p. 188). This was due 

 to the increase of cattle and sheep (Lydekker, 1894, p. 148) . 



The species is recorded from western Queensland by Longman 

 (1930, p. 64). 



There were a few records from extreme northwestern Victoria 

 (the last one in 1857), and the animal is now extinct in that state 

 (C. W. Brazenor, in litt., March 3, 1937). 



Jones writes (1924, p. 171) concerning the species in South 

 Australia : 



Specimens in the South Australian Museum come from Cooper's Creek, 

 from near Ooldea, and from the Gawler Ranges. Probably it still lives in 

 the neighbourhood of Ooldea, but specimens have not been met with in 

 that district for some years. ... In 1920 one was killed between Miller's 

 Creek and Coward Springs to the south and west of Lake Eyre. . . . Although 

 its distribution in the Centre is wide, it has always been a very rare animal, 

 and now must be regarded as a disappearing one. . . . 



