90 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



glossy; general color dusky brown, penciled above with black and 

 pale brownish yellow; naked part of rhinarium extending farther 

 back than in P. platyops; under parts dirty yellowish white; tail 

 clothed with short, stiff, black hairs, extreme tip white. Head and 

 body, 393 mm.; tail, 235 mm. (Waterhouse, 1846, vol. 1, pp. 224- 

 225.) 



The brief history of the species in South Australia is discussed 

 by Jones (1924, pp. 217-218) : 



The name "common" Rat-Kangaroo although that used in all books dealing 

 with the marsupials, is a sadly inappropriate one. . . . 



Of the former distribution of this animal in South Australia no details can 

 now be obtained. Save the bare record of its existence in this State [on the 

 Murray River], which is given in the British Museum catalogue of 1888 

 and which has been copied into all subsequent works, I know no other 

 reference to the creature as a South Australian animal. . . . The remaining 

 Potoroos should be carefully protected in those places where they still sur- 

 vive, and efforts should be made for turning them down in properly safe- 

 guarded sanctuaries. If this is not done there seems to be no doubt that 

 the remnant of the stock will share the fate of the South Australian form and 

 rapidly become extinct. 



Finlayson writes (19356, p. 221) concerning its status in Victoria: 



Few animals have been so obscure as to their status on the mainland as 

 the Potoroo. Its former presence in the south-eastern district of this State 

 [South Australia] is attested ... by the accounts of settlers, and by occa- 

 sional bone fragments in cave deposits, but it does not seem to have been a 

 common form west of the Glenelg [a river of southwestern Victoria], at the 

 time of settlement. 



In Victoria, though better known than here, there have been few explicit 

 references to it in the literature, which would enable one to judge as to how it 

 was faring in the struggle for survival, until Mr. Brazenor, in 1933 stated that 

 "though very uncommon it still persists ... in the north-eastern district, in the 

 Grampians, and probably in the Otway Ranges," and he has since confirmed 

 its presence in the last locality by personally collecting it there. 



I am able to add two other localities to these, viz., French Island in Western 

 Port, and the Portland area in the western district, and to state that in the 

 latter, at least, it is still plentiful. Its apparent scarcity is due, I believe, 

 largely to its choice of dense undergrowth .... In 1927 a rabbit trapper, 

 near Gorae, stated that he took over twenty of these "bandicoots" in a 

 short season, and this I was able subsequently to prove, by overhauling the 

 skulls at his dumps .... In the summer of the following year I took it 

 myself near Heywood and had further reports of it, and again in the winter 

 of the same year on French Island, and that no disaster has overtaken it 

 since then is vouched for by several correspondents, and very recently (for 

 the western district) by Professor Wood-Jones (in litt.}. 



C. W. Brazenor writes (in litt., March 3, 1937) that it was once 

 common in eastern and southern Victoria but is now confined to 

 small numbers in southwestern Victoria. He adds that it is com- 

 pletely protected by law. 



Gould (1863, vol. 2, p. 77) gives an account of it under the name 

 Hypsiprymnus murinus: "It is only in the swampy and damp parts 



