.Vaminals from ^.E. JSew Guinea, G71 



Skull quite as in keysseri. 



Dimensions of (he type ( ineasiirod on skin) '-^ 



Hcail and body 700 nun.; tail 420; hind foot (wet) 136 ; 

 ear (wet) 54. 



Skull: jrreatest length 110; condylo-basal length 108 ; 

 zygomatic breadth 58; nasals 41 X 17*5; intertemporal breadth 

 12*6 ; palatal length G(j ; length of p* 7"2 ; combined length 

 of m«^'^* 18'5. 



Hah. as above. 



Type. Adult male. Original number 8 (Keysser number 

 24). Collected August Il»14. 



This Kangaroo, as is shown by its skull, is evidently nearly 

 allied to M. keysseri, of which it would appear to be a high- 

 altitude race, distinguished by its long woolly fur and some- 

 what ditlerent colour. 



In making this comparison I have had, by Lord Rothschild's 

 kindness, the advantage o£ examining the tyi)e, an old male, 

 of M. keysseri, which was collected by Mr. Kevsser in the 

 Bulung region, inland of the Huon Gulf, at an altitude of about 

 1800-2000 m. 



* In describing this and other Marsupials of the present collection, my 

 attention haa again been drawn to the inconvenience systematic workers 

 suffer from the present absence of a common nomenclature of the teeth. 

 This absence is largely due to my own desertion of the ancient Marsupial 

 formula of P. 3, M.-t, on account of its beiug possibly erroneous. For the 

 correct formula was by some authors thought to be P. 4, M. .', as in other 

 mammals, the seven postcauine teeth being then serially and individually 

 homologous with each other in tlie two groups. This latter was the view 

 taken in a paper on the nomenclature of the teeth published in IftOot, and 

 since that date I have not ventured definitely to assign any Marsupial 

 cheek-tooth to its serial place, and in giving descriptions and niea-ure- 

 menta I have used words, such as " molaril'orm tooth," correct on either 

 theory. 



Now, however, on reviewing the whole subject, it seems to me that it 

 would be better to revert to tlie old notation, that used in the ' Catalogue 

 of Marsupials,' until such time as more detinite proof is brought forward 

 of the incorrectness of this notation. 



The four premolars, with the last changing, of the Mesozoic TriconnJ'n, 

 not to mention the four present in the abnormal Phascogale on which I 

 largely based my 1887 J paper, seem to me to speak very stronjrly in 

 favour of the old view, even if some arguments may be found against it. 



1 therefore now propo-e, in systematic descriptions, to revert to the 

 Catalogue notation, with the secator reckoned as /;*, and the " three ante- 

 rior molariform teeth" called, as in that work, m^-m^. 



The paper of 1892 § would, therefore, again fairly represent the views 

 I now hold on the various theories which have been put forwaid in 

 regard to the subject of Marsupial tooth-homologies. 



t P. Biol. Soc. Wash, xviii. p. 194 (190o). 



+ Phil. Trans. 1887, p. 443. 



§ Ann. & Mag. N. 11., April 189-\ p. 308. 



