on Auslraliman Rats, 431 



Conilurus melibius, sp. n. 



Closely allied to C. penicillatus, but with shorter feet. 



Size about as in penicillatKS. Colour of body quite the 

 same buffy grey, -with a more strongly buffy patch on the 

 occiput and nape, this coloration being common to both peni' 

 cillatus and hemihuciirus. Under surface dull whitish, the 

 iiairs white to their roots. Hands and feet white. Tail 

 greyish, blackening distally to a point three-fourths of its 

 length, then abruptly white for its terminal fourth, tufted as 

 in the allied species. 



Skull, as compared with that of hemileucurus, of which 

 alone good specimens are available, smaller, more strongly 

 bowed, with less concave interorbital, the supraorbital edges 

 evenly divergent behind, while in kemileucurus the inter- 

 orbital region is comparatively parallel-sided, evenly concave 

 in front and behind. Palatal foramina to the middle third 

 of in^. Molars small, as in penicillatus, considerably smaller 

 than those of hemihucurus. 



Dimensions of the type (measured in flesh) : — 



Head and body 154 mm. ; tail 177 ; hind foot 37 ; 

 ear 23. 



Skull : greatest length 38'2 ; condylo-incisive length 35*4 ; 

 zygomatic breadth 21; nasals 15x3'9 ; interorbital breadth 

 6*7 ; palatilar length 18 ; palatal foramina 9 ; upper molar 

 series 7'3 ; breadth of m^ 2'3. 



Hah. Melville Island, N. Australia ; type from Biro, 

 Apsley Straits. 



Type. Adult female. B.M. no. 13. 6. 28. 36. Original 

 number 3. Collected 9th October, 1911, by Mr. J. P. Eogers. 



This species differs from C. penicillatus, with which it 

 shares the comparatively small teeth, by its much shorter 

 feet, that animal having the feet of the same length as in the 

 larger-toothod C. hemileucxLvus. To this latter I now refer a 

 good series from the S. Alligator River, collected in 1903 by 

 J. T. Tunney, and hitherto referred to C. penicillatus. It is 

 interesting to notice that in this series some specimens have 

 broadly wiiite-tipped tails, as in the type of kemileucurus, and 

 others with this organ wholly black, as in the original 

 penicillatus. 



The inconvenience and confusion that is always liable to 

 arise from species being represented by a number of co-types 

 (as exemplified by the presence of both R. c. austrinus and 

 R.greyi among the co-types of the latter form) have made me 

 think it advisable to draw up the following list of lectotypes 

 of such Australian Murida? as were described on two or more 



