88 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



gilberti near the entrances of some caves in the Margaret River 

 district, and they may still exist sparingly in that and other locali- 

 ties, as they are very liable to be overlooked on account of their 

 great external resemblance to Macropus brachyurus. 



"The animal known to natives as 'Wurrark' around the Margaret 

 River is probably Potorous gilberti, said to frequent marshy country, 

 and although formerly numerous, it is thought to have almost, if 

 not entirely, died out. A few may still occur towards Cape Leeuwin." 



L. Glauert (in litt., March 17, 1937) considers the species extinct. 



Broad-faced Rat-kangaroo 



POTOROUS PLATYOPS (Gould) 



Hypsiprrymnus platyops Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1844, p. 103, 1844. 

 ("Swan River," Western Australia; the type, according to Waterhouse 

 (1846, vol. 1, p. 232), is labeled as coming from "Walyema Swamps, about 

 forty miles north-east of Northam, Western Australia.") 



FIGS.: Gould, 1851, vol. 2, pi. 70; Le Souef and Burrell, 1926, fig. 55. 



This Western Australian species, regarded as rare at the time of 

 its discovery a century ago, and represented by apparently no 

 more than three specimens all told, is evidently extinct. 



Face extremely broad and, with sides of body, brownish gray; 

 back reddish brown; face and upper surface beset with numerous 

 long yellowish-white hairs; under parts and limbs buffy gray; tail 

 brown above, paler beneath. Total length, 482 mm.; tail, 177 mm. 

 (Gould, 18446, p. 103.) 



"This species ... is so rare that an adult male in my own col- 

 lection and another in that of the British Museum, both procured 

 fin 1840] by Mr. Gilbert in Western Australia, one in the Walyema 

 Swamps, near Northam in the interior, and the other at King George's 

 Sound, are all the examples that have yet been seen" (Gould, 1863, 

 vol. 2, p. 80) . 



"A single specimen from the Margaret River was sent to the 

 London Zoological Society in 1908. This suggests that the species* 

 still exists in that area" (Glauert, 1933, p. 26). 



Shortridge wrote in 1910 (p. 826) : "A small gregarious wallaby 

 is said to have been at one time plentiful in the coastal scrub to 

 the east of Albany; from the description it was probably one of 

 these species [P. platyops and P. gikbertii]. It was known to the 

 natives as 'Moort/ and according to them has entirely disappeared 

 there. Described as being rather similar to Macropus brachyurus in 

 habits, but more sluggish in its movements, on which account cats 

 and bush-fires have probably caused its disappearance." 



A possible clue to the identity of the above-mentioned species 

 appears in Gould's original description of platyops (18446, p. 103), 

 wherein he cites the native name of "Mor-da," presumably current 



