566 NEW POINTS IN THE ZOOLOGY OP NEW GUINEA. 



corresponding with them is one in Tasmania and another in 

 Australia. These creatures could not travel over water, and so 

 there must have been land communication at the period of their 

 original distribution. Quite lately an Echidna has been found in 

 the south-west corner of New Guinea, and sent to Professor 

 Kolleston by the Rev. Mr. Lawes, the discoverer, accompanied by 

 a letter, in which the statement is made that this is the first ever 

 found. For this species the name Echidna lawesii is proposed. The 

 Cassowary has also been found on both sides of Torres Straits. 

 Proof of the existence of the Tree-Kangaroo, both in Australia and 

 New Guinea, Professor Eolleston also considered reliable. At its 

 conclusion the paper treated of the Admiralty-Island pig, in the 

 first part of which Professor E/olleston pointed out the peculiarity 

 of a glabella. 



[As no description is given in this abstract of the characters which distinguish this 

 new species of Echidna from other species of the same genus, I wrote to C. Robertson, 

 Esq., Demonstrator of Anatomy, University of Oxford, to ask if any description of the 

 species had been recorded in the Catalogue of the Museum or elsewhere. He answered 

 that he was not aware of any description drawn up by Dr. Eolleston, but referred me 

 to the * Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,' in which I find that 

 Mr. E. P. Ramsay, Curator of the Australian Museum, Sydney, contributed March 26, 

 1877 (*Proc. Linnean Society N. S. W.,' vol. ii. p. 31), a note of a species of Echidna 

 {Tachyglossus) from Port Moresby, New Guinea. Mr. Ramsay distinguishes it from 

 the Tachyglossus bruijnii from the northern parts of that island. He describes its ex- 

 ternal characters on p. 32, and states in a footnote that he has 'not yet learned the 

 name which has been given to this new species, but daily expects to hear of it from my 

 friends in England. Should it however be still unnamed, I propose for it the name of 

 T. lawesii, in honour of its discoverer.' In vol. iii. p. 244, September 30, 1878, he 

 states that Mr. Goldie has obtained three other specimens, and he gives the measure- 

 ments of each. — Editor.] 



