PROF. OWEN ON HYPSIPRYMNODON. 575 



Prom the presence, direction, and relative size of the hallux, the Hypsiprymnodon 

 might he inferred to he a grasper, perhaps an occasional climber, though not so strictly 

 arboreal as the Dendrolagues and Phalangers. Its nearest affinities, as shown by the 

 skull and dentition, are to the Hypsiprymnidce. 



Both male and female of Hypsiprymnodon, as exemplified by the transmitted skins, are 

 of equal size ; each measures 1 foot 3i inches from snout to end of tail, this being 5 

 inches 9 lines in the female, 5 inches 4 Hues in the male, of wbich the tip of the tail 

 appears to be entire. The skins indicate a rather long and slender-bodied quadruped, 

 with a circumference at the haunches of about 8 inches, the trunk not tapering forward, 

 as in the Potoroos, in which family also the smaller size of the female is notable, though 

 the sexual difference of size is less in some of the Potoroos than in the Kangaroos. 



If to a skull of 2 inches 7 lines (65 millims.) in length 10 millims. be added for a 

 snout shrunk in the dried skin, and 2 millims. for occipital integument, we get a length 

 of bead of 3 inches. The limbs are less unequal in length than in the Potoroos placed 

 by Mr. Waterhouse in his subgenus Fotorous, the species of which have " the hinder 

 legs shorter and the head more slender and pointed " than in the Hypsiprymni proper. 



In the relative length of the head to the body, and especially to that of the hind limb, 

 Hypsiprymnodon recedes from the Poephagous group, especially as exemplified in the 

 Kangaroos and in such Potoroos as Hypsiprymnus campestris, Gd., and Hypsiprymnus 

 platyops, Gd. In this proportion Hypsiprymnus apicalis, Gd., comes nearest to Hypsi- 

 prymnodon. 



The pelage of Hypsiprymnodon moschatus resembles that of the Potoroos, and differs 

 from that of Bandicoots, in which the hair is of two kinds, the outwardly visible 

 and longest being coarse and harsh to the touch, that beneath forming a soft, somewhat 

 scanty fur. In Hypsiprymnodon the fur is of moderate length, pretty closely applied, 

 having numerous rather longer interspersed fine hairs, the visible portion of which is 

 black or blackish, and pointed ; these are relieved by the dark- and light-barred colour 

 of the visible part of the shorter hairs, all the hairs at their basal portions showing a 

 leaden greyish tint. The tips of many of the shorter hairs are of a brighter brown tban 

 the rest, approaching to yellow. Mr. Ramsey describes the upper surface of the body of 

 the living or recent animal as " clothed with a close and rather stiff fur of rich golden 

 colour mixed with black ; the head, face, and lower part of the legs dark-brownish grey ; 

 along the centre of the throat and chest a few patches of white " *. These, in the skin 

 of the male transmitted, are of a light yellowish tint ; and the abdomen is a light brown. 

 "The young are of a more golden hue, and less white on the under parts "t- The 

 pelage is continued by shorter hairs from the trunk over the base of the tail for half 

 an inch or more, where it abruptly ceases. The rest of the tail is nude and covered 

 by reticularly disposed scales about 1-| or 1 millim. in size to the gradually attenuated 

 extremity. These scales are almost black on the transversely convex upperside, and of 

 lighter leaden colour on the less convex underside. The diameter of the tail at the 

 beginning of the scaly part is 8 millims. A few miuute very short hairs project from 



* lorn. cil. p. 34. t Ibid. 



4g2 



