ORDER MARSUPIALIA: MARSUPIALS 97 



ing from sides of two larger toes. Head and body, 444 mm.; tail, 

 279-305 mm. (Waterhouse, 1846, vol. 1, pp. 87, 90.) 



At the time of its discovery by Peron in 1801, the species occurred 

 in great numbers on the islands in Sharks Bay (Bernier, Dirk Har- 

 tog's, and Dorre). A little more than a century later Shortridge 

 (in Thomas, 1907, p. 772) found the animals swarming on Bernier 

 Island. "It has been a particularly dry season, and they were very 

 thin. Food was evidently insufficient for them all, and dead speci- 

 mens were lying about in all directions. It would seem that they 

 have no natural enemies on the island; and they breed to such an 

 extent that the island will carry no more, and in times of drought 

 a number have to die." He adds (1910, p. 818) : "It may be noted 

 that sheep had been temporarily introduced there, while in the 

 south of Dirk Hartog there is a large sheep station, and the wallabies 

 are said to have entirely left that end of the island." 



Glauert (1933, p. 27) reports the species as "not common" on the 

 islands in Sharks Bay. 



On the mainland of Western Australia Gilbert found it in densely 

 thick scrubs, where "thie only possible means of obtaining it is by 

 having a number of natives to clear the spot, and two or three with 

 dogs and guns to watch for it. ... The natives are in the habit 

 of burning these thickets at intervals of three years, and by this 

 means destroy very great numbers." (Gould, 1863, vol. 2, p. 65.) 



Thomas (1888, p. 182) recorded specimens from Wongar Hills, 

 York, and Perth. 



Shortridge (1910, p. 818; map, p. 817) found it "existing in a 

 few isolated localities to the east of Pinjelly and Wagin, and accord- 

 ing to natives the Pellinup and Salt River districts in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Stirling Ranges. 



"Plentiful enough in the restricted areas in which they occur, 

 frequenting thick prickly scrub." 



He also remarks (pp. 818-819) on the "most sudden and unac- 

 countable" disappearance of this and a number of other mammals 

 in the Western, South-Eastern, and Central districts of Western 

 Australia; it "is said to have been first noticed about 1880." Short- 

 ridge continues: 



The above areas are now, with a few exceptions, entirely devoid of indigenous 

 mammals. This is said partly to account for the way in which the natives have 

 been disappearing from the Western and Central districts of late years. . . . 



The entire disappearance of so many species, over such large tracts of country, 

 is generally considered to be due to some epidemic or disease .... It may be 

 noted, however, that they have died out chiefly in the drier parts of the country, 

 where, except for the introduction of sheep, there has been very little altera- 

 tion in the natural conditions. Rabbits, although already very numerous in 

 the Centre and South-East, have not yet found their way to the North- West. 



The mammals of the South- West, to about as far north as the Moore River, 

 ... are rapidly retreating before civilisation. . . . The burning of forests 



