new Australian Rats. 610 



apicaJis. Fur rather thin and poor, not so thick and woolly 

 as in opiculis, hairs of back about 17 nun. in length. General 

 colour above dull brown (not far from " Saccardo's umber"), 

 the witiiers tending more towards buffy. Under surface 

 slaty grey broadly washed with drabljy whitish, the sides of 

 the belly more strongly drabby. Ears shorter than in apicalis, 

 dark brown. Hands with the metatarsals dark brown, the 

 digits lighter. Feet with the ankles, outer side of the 

 metatarsals (inner in made-up skin), and proximal part of 

 the digits brown, the inner portion of the metatarsals, and 

 the tips of the digits white. Tail well haired but not tufted, 

 brown above, dull whitish below, throughout its length. Not 

 whitened at tip, as is also the case with apicalis, the original 

 descii[)tion notwithstanding. 



Skull larger and stouter than in apicalis. Muzzle broad 

 and heavy. Interorbital region broad, with comparatively 

 sharp-angled edges. Zygomatic plate more projected for- 

 wards. Palatal foramina shorter, not reaching the level of 

 vi^. Bullae rather large — these organs not present in the 

 available specimens of apicalis. 



Incisors rather slender, not thicker than in apicalis, but 

 meeting each other at a 'wider angle, owing to the greater 

 breadth of the muzzle. Molars larger than in apicalis, but 

 a])parently of similar structure — much worn down in the 

 type. 



Dimensions of the type (measured on the skin) : — 



Head and body 195 mm. ; tail 178 (not quite perfect) ; 

 hind foot 48 ; ear (dry) 2-1. 



Skull : greatest length 18 ; condylo-incisive length 4G ; 

 zygomatic breadth 23'5 ; nasals 18 x 6 ; interorbital breadth 

 5'7; breadth of brain-case 18'5 ; zygomatic plate 6 ; palatilar 

 length 13-6 ; palatal foramina 8-'8 X 3-8 ; bulla 7*8 ; upper 

 molar series 9'3. 



Hab. Franklin's Island, Nuyts Archipelago, S. Australia. 



Type. Old female. B.M. no. 21. 7. 3. 2. Collected 

 23rd November, 1920, and presented by Professor F. Wood 

 Jones. An immature specimen also examined. 



This fine rat forms a very inleiesting discovery, as it 

 represents a second species of the rare genus Leporillus, 

 hitherto only known by the two examples of L. apicalis in 

 the British Museum, the latter species being in all probability 

 killed out on the mainland, and I have great pleasure in 

 connecting with it the name of its captor and donor, Prof. 

 Wood Jones, to whom also we owe the modern specimen of 

 lialtus </rejji i ecently referred to in a previous paper. 



Although Gould had in his collection two specimens of 



lU* 



