124 Mr. Ogilby on certain Australian Quadrupeds, 



debted, and who has earned the just tribute of public gratitude by a career of 

 honourable and successful discovery. Whatever is most curious and valu- 

 able in the following observations, is mainly due to the liberal and obliging 

 communications of Major Mitchell, Surveyor-General of New South Wales; 

 and if his name occurs less frequently than it ought to do in the course of the 

 following pages, I beg it to be distinctly understood that the circumstance 

 arises entirely from a desire to avoid the too frequent repetition of acknow- 

 ledgements, which are at all times more easily felt than expressed. 

 I proceed to the description of the 



Genus Conilurus, 



a new and interesting form of the Rodent family, with tlie general characters 

 of which I have long been partially acquainted, though it is only from the 

 communications of Major Mitchell that I am enabled to detail the valuable 

 particulars of its habits and oeconomy, which will be found in the sequel. 

 The appellation by which I propose to designate this new genus is com- 

 pounded of the words oûpà and /côi'iXoc, (evidently a Greek form of the bar- 

 barous term Conn/,) which occurs in iElian as the name of the common rab- 

 bit, and is intended to express the resemblance which the animal bears to 

 a small rabbit with a long tail. My observations are founded upon the 

 examination of two specimens whicli have long been in the Society's collec- 

 tion under the name of " the Native Rabbit," and which were formerly brought 

 from New South Wales by the late Mr. George Caley. Both specimens are 

 unfortunately without skulls, so that it is impossible for me at present to 

 establish the characters of the genus upon strictly scientific principles ; and 

 I can only deduce from the form of the claws and feet, the quality of the fur, 

 and various minor particulars, confirmed, however, by the testimony of Major 

 Mitchell, that they belong to the Rodent order, and most probably to the 

 extensive and complicated family of JMuridce. Like these animals, they have 

 the hind legs considerably longer than the fore, tlie excess arising principally 

 from the development of the tarsus ; four toes on the fore feet and five on the 

 hind, all long, slender, separate, and armed \v\U\ small weak claws, sharp, 

 and partially compressed on the sides, but scarcely surpassing the extremities 

 of the toes, and totally unadapted to habits of burrowing, except, perhaps, in 



