92 Notes on Pliascogale and Chaetocercus. 



of the Australian species, with short curved claws, broad 

 flattened skull, and with i^ always markedly differentiated 

 irom the other incisors ; and the second, of which Ph. lo- 

 rentzii is the extreme, with long more or less fossorial claws, 

 a narrow skull, rounded above, with long slender muzzle, 

 and with %^ generally little or not differentiated from the 

 other incisors. Into this latter group would ouie the Tas- 

 niaiiian Ph. minima and s'oainsoni^ Ph. apicalis, nearly all 

 the New Guinea species, and also Ph. wallacei, from which 

 the generic name, if a genus were distinguished, would be 

 Myoicds. But the line between the two groups is not very 

 sharply defined, and the subject may, perhaps, be left for 

 iurther investigation. 



But one species, KrefFt's ^^ Chcetocercus cristicauda,^^ hitherto 

 placed in Phascogale, differs in such a marked way from all 

 the others in its liypertrophied buUse and peculiar feet that I 

 think it should be recognized as generically different from 

 the rest, and would therefore restore to it the name Chceto- 

 cercus given it by its original describer. 



The following is a new subspecies belonging to true 

 Phascogale : — 



Phascogale melanura modesta, subsp. n. 



Like typical melanura in all respects except that the rufous 

 patch behind the ears is practically obsolete, the hairs corre- 

 sponding to it slaty basally and only dull rufous just at their 

 tips. Tail brown rather than black. 



Dimensions of the typical skin : — 



Head and body 106 mm.; tail 126; hind foot (wet) 20; 

 ear (wet) 13. 



Hah. Mount Goliath, Dutch New Guinea. 



Type. Adult male. B.M. no. 11. 11. 29. 11. Collected 

 by Mr. A. S. Meek. 



Ph. melanura was originally described from two spirit- 

 specimens, and on this account the brightness of the ear- 

 patches was hardly suihciently emphasized. A fresh skin of 

 it, however^ obtained by Mr. W. Stalker at Tamata, Mam- 

 bare 11., British New Guinea, has the patches bright ochra- 

 ceous to the roots of the hairs, and a renewed examination of 

 the alcoholic co-type in the Museum shows that this is the 

 normal condition in the Eastern form. 



