ORDER MARSUPIALIA I MARSUPIALS 59 



Pig-footed Bandicoots are said . . . when chased by dogs, to seek the 

 shelter of hollow logs or hollow trees. In the districts to which they are now 

 confined they would be hard put to find a log, let alone a tree .... Once 

 open country of this type has been invaded by the fox, the fate of Choeropus 

 is sealed. . . . The name by which it is known to the Kukata blacks is 

 Wilalya, and they regard it as an animal which has always been rare and 

 which is now extinct in their country. 



Reporting on the Horn Expedition to Central Australia, Spencer 

 says (1896, pp. 17-18) : 



"At the present time this is one of the most difficult of the smaller 

 marsupials to secure. . . . During the expedition we were unable 

 to secure a single specimen. On a subsequent visit to Charlotte 

 Waters I was fortunate enough to obtain one secured by the 

 blacks. . . . 



"There is no doubt but that the range of the animal extends 

 widely over the central area. In the Adelaide Museum is a speci- 

 men from Barrow Creek, which lies well within the tropics, and 

 throughout the whole of our expedition all the natives were well 

 acquainted with it. ... It ... is evidently rapidly becoming ex- 

 tinct, except perhaps in the more central districts." 



"Said to still have a wide but sparse distribution in the central 

 region, there has been little proof of late, and its terrestrial, non- 

 burrowing, specialized habits and frail constitution render its ulti- 

 mate extinction certain" (E. Le G. Troughton, in litt., April 16, 

 1937). 



Western Pig-footed Bandicoot 



CHAEROPUS ECAUDATUS OCCIDENTALS Gould 



[Choeropus] occidentalis Gould, Mamm. Australia, vol. 1, p. 10, pi. 6, 

 1845. ("The interior" of "Western Australia"; type locality shown by 

 Thomas (1888, p. 252) to be "Boorda, Kirltana, W. A.") 



FIGS.: Gould, 1845, vol. 1, pi. 6 (right and left figs.) ; Waterhouse, 1846, vol. 1, 

 pi. 13, fig. 2. 



This animal is extinct, at least in Western Australia (L. Glauert, 

 in litt., March 17, 1937). The form that once occurred in Central 

 Australia (see discussion under C. e. ecaudatus) does not seem to 

 have been recorded for some years and may have suffered the 

 same fate. 



The western subspecies differs from the eastern one chiefly in its 

 orange-brown rather than gray coloration. 



Gould states (1863, vol. 1, p. 10) that Gilbert sent two specimens 

 from Western Australia and that the animal is confined to the 

 interior. According to Waterhouse (1846, vol. 1, p. 392), one of the 

 specimens came from the Swan River district. 



"I was not able to find out anything definite about the dis- 



