on Australasian Rats, 427 



Ti/pe. Adult male. B.M. no. 47. 8. 14. 5. Collected on 

 February 7th, 1846, during Sir T. L. Mitchell's 1845-46 

 expedition into Tropical Australia. Two specimens. 



"Ooba" of the natives.-— ^iV T. L. Mitchell. 



Rattus culmorum austrinus, subsp. n. 



Fur again still longer than in vallesiiis, the hairs of tlie 

 back commonly 20 mm. in length, while the longer piles 

 overtop them by some 10 mm. General colour rather greyer 

 and less definitely fawn-coloured. Below equally grey, as 

 distinguished from the whitish of culmorum. 



8kull with teeth as in vallesius, but the bullae are still 

 smaller. 



Dimensions o£ the type : — 



Head and body (skin) 155 mm. ; till 120 ; hind foot 28. 



Skull : condylo-incisive length (c.) 34 ; back of parietals 

 to gnathion 32*5 ; zygomatic breadth 18 ; nasals 13 ; inter- 

 orbital breadth 4*5 ; palatal foramina 7*5 ; buHa 7*4 ; upper 

 molar series 6*8. 



Hah. South Australia; type probably from Kangaroo 

 Island*. 



Type. Adult male. B.M. no. 55. 12. 24. 336. Collected 

 by Dr. J. B. Harvey and presented by him in 1841 to the 

 Zoological Society's Museum. Five further specimens pre- 

 sented by Sir George Grey, and one (a lectoparatype of 

 R. greyi) in the Gould collection. 



Evidently a common rat in South Australia in the forties, 

 but whether it still exists in any out-of-the-way part of the 

 colony we have no evidence to show. 



All the forms of culmorum are readily distinguishable from 

 greyi by their distinctly beaded supraorbital edges, their 

 larger teeth, and much larger bulla3. 



Allied in a general way to culmorum is the following new 

 species from Melville Island, North Australia : — 



Rattus melvilleus, sp. n. 



Most like 7^. tunneyi of the mainland o£ North Australia, 

 but considerably larger. 



Fur coarse and harsh, liberally mixed with flattened semi- 

 spinous hairs ; hairs of back about 13 mm. in length. General 



* I am informed by the authorities of the Zoological Society that 

 Dr. Harvey's address in 1839 was Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, while it 

 was Port Lincoln in 1842. As the specimen was sent to the Zoological 

 Society's Museum iu 1841, it is probable that it was obtained at or near 

 the former place. 



