154 



Description of a Ne^w Genus and Species 

 OF Marsupialia, "Notoryctes typhlops."* 



By E. C. Stirling, M.A., M.D 



Lecturer on Phydoloffy in the University of Adelaide, Hon. Director 

 of the South Australian Museum. 



[Read February 3, 1891]. 



The first specimen of this animal, received by the South Aus- 

 tralian Museum, was forwarded by the courtesy of Mr. A. 

 Molineux, Secretary of the Agricultural Bureau. Wrapped 

 merely in a rag saturated with kerosine and enclosed in a 

 revolver-cartridge box, it had travelled over a thousand miles 

 largely by packhorse and coach. Consequently it was in a very 

 bad condition on arrival in Adelaide. On this specimen, which 

 appeared to be a female, were based some preliminary notes com- 

 municated to the Royal Society of South Australia on the 4th 

 September, 1888, and an almost similar communication was made 

 to the correspondence columns of '• N'dttre'' shortly afterv^ards. 

 Some few months subsequently I received three more specimens, 

 all males, of which one only was in anything like good preserva- 

 tion. The reasons for the delay in the publication of the present 

 description, which is based upon an examination of the fou r speci- 

 mens then to hand, and for the new name under which it now 

 appears, are explained in a concluding paragraph. By the kindness 

 of His Excellency the Governor, Lord Kintore, I have recently 

 had the opportunity of making, with him, the complete transit from 

 North to South of the Australian Continent, Though the- 

 opportunity of traversing the zoologically unexplored regions of 

 Central Australia would, under any circumstances, have proved 

 an attractive programme, a special inducement for the journey 

 was afforded by the fact that our route must pass through the 

 tract of country in which the animal had been found, and hence 

 arose the possibility of my being able to secure additional speci- 

 mens. In this expectation I have happily been successful, for, 

 I was fortunate enough to secure six complete examples, and one 

 skeleton. Amongst these are four females, which sex had been 

 represented only by the first specimen. This, however, was so much 

 decomposed as to leave some doubt of its character. On my 

 return from the transcontinental journey, I found the present 



* The name " Psammoryctes," origmally selected for this new genus, 

 having been already appropriated, that here employed is substituted. 



