74 



EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Hairy-nosed Wombat 



LASIORHINUS LATIFRONS LATIFRONS (Owen) 



Phascolomys latifrons Owen, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1845, p. 82, 1845. ("Con- 

 tinental (South) Australia.") 



FIGS.: Gould, 1863, vol. 1, pis. 59, 60; Wolf, 1867, vol. 2, pi. 27; Royal Nat. 

 Hist., vol. 3, p. 266, fig., 1894-95; Jones, 1924, p. 267, fig. 189. 



This Wombat is now practically restricted to coastal South 

 Australia, though once extending a little farther east and west; its 

 numbers have evidently been severely reduced. 



FIG. 9. Hairy-nosed Wombat (LasiorhiniLs latifrons latifrons). 

 After Wolf, 1867. 



The fur is soft and silky; general color grizzled gray, somewhat 

 dappled; chin dark; cheeks, throat, and chest white; belly gray; 

 ears long and narrow; rhinarium hairy; tail rudimentary. Head 

 and body, 900 mm. (Jones, 1924, pp. 266-267.) 



In South Australia the species has been recorded from Mount 

 Gambier, Port Augusta, Port Lincoln, River Murray, River Light, 

 Fowler's Bay, Yorke Peninsula, Blanchetown, Blyth, 30 miles 

 north of Adelaide, and Nullarbor Plain. "Apparently its distri- 

 bution does not extend into the more northern parts of South 

 Australia" (Spencer, 1896, p. 3). Specimens are recorded from 

 Eucla, in the extreme southeast of Western Australia (Jones, 

 1924, p. 268). E. Le G. Troughton writes (in litt., April 16, 

 1937) that it was once plentiful, according to early observers, 

 in southwestern New South Wales and Victoria, but now is ap- 

 parently restricted to coastal South Australia, the inference 

 being that survival is not assured. A number of specimens were 



