ORDER MARSUPIALIA: MARSUPIALS 83 



Gould's Rat-kangaroo 



BETTONGIA PENICILLATA GOULDII Waterhouse 



Bettongia Gouldii J. E. Gray, List Specimens Mammalia Brit. Mus., p. 94, 

 1843 (nornen nudum). ("Head of Gulph St. Vincent," South Australia.) 



Bettongia Gouldii Waterhouse, Nat. Hist. Mammalia, vol. 1, p. 219, 1846. 

 ("South Australia.") 



"As far as can be ascertained at present, this animal seems to 

 have disappeared from South Australia" (Jones, 1924, p. 212). As 

 far as known, it was confined to this state. 



The type specimen, a very immature animal, is the only one of 

 this subspecies that seems to have been described in detail. The fur 

 is brownish, penciled with black and yellowish white; under parts 

 white, more or less suffused with yellow; tail rusty brown at base, 

 the terminal half black both above and below (Waterhouse, 1846, 

 vol. 1, p. 219). Head and body, 390 mm.; tail, 310 mm. (Thomas, 

 1888, p. 111). 



Jones (1924, pp. 212-214) furnishes practically all the available 

 information on the former and present status of this rat-kangaroo: 



It is possible that it may prove to be still living somewhere in this State, 

 and if there is any hope of such a survival it would seem that the South-East 

 or the extreme North-East holds out the greatest promise. 



Not only does it appear to have died out completely over the greater portion 

 of the State, but no specimen of the South Australian form seems to have 

 been preserved in the zoological collections in Australia. At present, so far 

 as this State is concerned, the race is represented only by some half-dozen 

 skulls. . . . 



Only a few years ago this animal was extremely common over the greater 

 part of South Australia. Twenty years ago the dealers in Adelaide did a 

 great trade in selling them by the dozen at about ninepence a head for coursing 

 on Sunday afternoons. It may surprise people who remember those days to 

 know that there is not a preserved specimen, not even a skin of the animal, 

 available for scientific study in South Australia to-day. In the same way 

 it will one day surprise the rising generation when they realise that the few 

 native animals they are now familiar with are gone for ever. . . . 



It is much to be hoped that, should some remnant of the South Australian 

 race be found still living in the more bush-covered portions of the South 

 or of the North-East, steps will be at once taken that it may be preserved 

 and protected by every possible means. 



Ogilby's Rat-kangaroo 



BETTONGIA PENICILLATA OGILBYI (Waterhouse) 



Hypsiprymnus Ogilbyi Waterhouse, Naturalists' Library (Jardine), vol. 11, 

 Marsupialia, p. 185, 1841. ("Western Australia in the neighbourhood of 

 Swan River"; Thomas (1888, p. Ill) lists the type specimen from "York, 

 W. A.") 



FIG.: Gould, 1852, vol. 2, pi. 62. 



Although very plentiful in the southwest of Western Australia a 

 generation ago, this subspecies is now "reduced in numbers" (L. 



