96 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



1932 in an unsuccessful search for it. "A year later, ... on the 

 south side of the Musgraves, we learned from the blacks that there 

 was a small colony of maalas in a spinifex patch ten miles south 

 of Koonapandi." 



Finlayson then gives an account of hunting in this spinifex patch, 

 about 10 miles square, with some blacks. Their favorite method 

 of firing the country was utilized. As the fire drove the maalas out 

 of the tussocks, their chance of dodging the throwing-sticks was 

 slender. Those that escaped the fire by remaining in their burrows 

 were hunted out after the fire had passed. A satisfactory series of 

 specimens was secured. 



The Rufous Hare-wallaby "requires observation and close pro- 

 tection wherever possible" (E. Le G. Troughton, in litt., April 16, 

 1937). 



[It is represented by doubtfully distinct insular subspecies on 

 Dorre and Bernier Islands in Sharks Bay, Western Australia L. h. 

 dorreae Thomas and L. h. bernieri Thomas. Evidently both are 

 protected by their insular environment, and at least the latter is 

 reported as plentiful (Shortridge, 1910, p. 819).] 



Banded Hare- wallaby; Banded Wallaby 



LAGOSTROPHUS FASCIATUS (Peron and Lesueur) 



Kangurus Fasciatus Peron and Lesueur, in Peron and Freycinet, Voyage Terres 



Australes, vol. 1, p. 114, atlas, ed. 1, pi. 27, 1807. (Bernier Island, Sharks 



Bay, Western Australia.) 

 FIGS.: Peron and Freycinet, Voyage Terres Australes, atlas, ed. 1, pi. 27, 



1807, ed. 2, pi. 57, 1824; Gould, 1842, pi. 30; Waterhouse, 1846, vol. 1, pi. 4, 



fig. 2; Gould, 1849, vol. 2, pi. 56. 



Although Shortridge says (in Thomas, 1907, p. 772) that he had 

 never seen any animal, not even rabbits, in such numbers as this 

 species on Bernier Island, it now seems a melancholy necessity to 

 include it among the vanishing mammals of Australia. It is no 

 longer common on the islands in Sharks Bay where it once swarmed, 

 and it occurs in only a few isolated localities on the mainland of 

 Western Australia. (The mainland form, sometimes recognized as 

 L. /. albipilis (Gould) , is doubtfully distinct, and will not be treated 

 separately here.) 



The animal is about the size of the Common Hare of Europe; 

 fur very long and soft, brown-gray, variegated with rusty, black, 

 and white; space about eye bright rusty; numerous narrow dark 

 cross bands on the back, most conspicuous posteriorly ; on the upper 

 parts and sides are very long interspersed white hairs; under parts 

 dirty white; hind feet with long, harsh, brownish-white hairs spring- 



