264 ON HALMATURUS LUCTUOSUS. 
42, ON THE KANGAROO CALLED HALMATURUS 
LUCTUOSUS BY D’ALBERTIS, AND ITS AFFI- 
NITIES.* 
(Plates VIII-X.) | 
Page 48. Durine the time that H.M.S. “ Basilisk” was cruising in the region 
of the south-east of New Guinea one of the sailors acquired a speci- 
men of a small Kangaroo, which Signor L. M. D’Albertis, C.M.Z.S., 
obtained from him at Sydney. In a letter addressed to Mr. Sclater, 
dated Sydney, N.S.W., December 1, 1873, Signor D’Albertis de- 
scribed this specimen, under the name of Halmaturus luctuosus, as 
followst :—“ Length from the nose to the occiput 43 inches; length 
of the ears 13 inch; length of the thigh 52 inches; length of the 
tarsus, including the nail, 43 inches; length of the tail 114 inches. 
Total length, from the nose to the tip of the tail, 2 feet 5 inches. Its 
weight is 74 pounds. 
“The fur is short, its general colour dark ashy brown with a 
silvery tinge, white at the roots; chin, throat, and chest white, with 
two horizontal ashy stripes under the pouch; on the top of the head a 
silvery whitish spot; the thighs more grey; feet dark, almost black; 
the arm white inside; the hand black. The tail moderately strong, of 
a similar colour to the body, but white and bare of hairs for about an 
inch at the extremity. The lips are barely covered with fur; the 
eyelids are puffed, almost naked, and provided with eyelashes so fine 
as not to be readily seen at first sight.” 
Hab. “8.E. of New Guinea.” 
On April 17, 1874, this Kangaroo was deposited by Signor D’Al- 
bertis in the Society’s Gardens; and at the Meeting for Scientific 
Business on May 5th following, Mr. Sclater, in reporting on the 
additions to the Society’s Menagerie, exhibited a drawing of it, and 
referred to it as the “typical example of Halmaturus luctuosus of D’Al- 
bertis.” It is this specimen, a female, which forms the subject of the 
present communication. It died, Nov. 24, 1874, with congested lungs, 
after a severe frost, the first of the commencing winter. 
An examination of the dead body, and especially of the mouth, 
which it was impossible to observe in the living animal, made it 
* “Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1875, pp. 48-59. Pls. VII—IX. 
Reed, Feb. 2, 1875. 
+ “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1874, p. 110. 
t “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1874, p, 247, Pl, XUIL. 
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