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842 DR.J. MURIE ON THE SPECIES OF PHASCOLOMYS. [Dec. 12, 
From the foregoing remarks it will be seen that the Wombat 
under consideration differs widely from the Common Wombat, both 
as regards dimensions and colour—also that there is a most close 
agreement in the aggregate with the externally marked characters so 
well described by both Mr. Angas and Prof. M‘Coy; in fact they 
so approach each other as to leave little room for doubt that these 
gentlemen had the very same species under their consideration. If, 
indeed, without looking at the specimen, the hand be passed over 
the skin, the fur feels so extremely soft and silky that one would 
not for a moment confound the animal with any other of the known 
adult Wombats. 
So far one may rest satisfied with these three individual specimens 
of Wombat being of the same species ; for notwithstanding that Mr. 
Angas has not particularly remarked the hairy muffle, and although 
the feet in his specimen seem to have been lighter in shade than 
Prof. M‘Coy’s, yet the latter gentleman in his very graphic account 
does not lay sufficient stress on the equally telling peculiarity, the 
softness of the fur. Besides this, every other part of their separate 
descriptions admirably coincide. 
Having descanted with sufficient minuteness upon the general out- 
ward appearance of our specimen and its similarity with those deemed 
to be P. latifrons, it remains to be demonstrated from the skull that 
ours is compatible with no other than the Broad-fronted Wombat ; 
and upon the cranium the whole argument turns. 
In the article already quoted (in the ‘ Transactions’ of this 
Society ) Professor Owen has given excellent plates of the natural size 
of the skulls of P. wombat and P. latifrons. He has, furthermore, 
succinctly described and pointed out in detail the characteristic dif- 
ferences between the two. 
On comparing, then, this skull of P. lasiorhinus, Gould, with the 
original typical specimen at the Museum of the College of Surgeons 
and with Owen’s plates and descriptions, it agrees so completely in 
every respect as to leave not a shadow of doubt as to its identity. 
The more easily recognizable differences in P. latifrons, of the 
greater height of the intermaxillary bones, the broader and nearly 
equal-sided triangular nasals, the great interorbital breadth, and 
well-marked postorbital processes, together with the enormously ex- 
cavated supratympanic cells, are determinable at a glance; further 
minute and critical examination but certifies to the correctness of 
this off-hand and cursory inspection. 
No further direct evidence or lengthened description is therefore 
presumed to be necessary, excepting to lay the skull alongside Owen’s 
figures before the Society, when the conclusive identity of the cranium 
of the P. lasiorhinus of Gould with the P. latifrons of Owen must 
at once be admitted. 
Although essentially agreeing in all the specific characters, the 
present cranium of P. lasiorhinus differs in several minor details from 
the original type specimen, which may be worthy of mention as 
illustrating that in individual skulls of the same species such slight 
variations do occur, probably either from sex or age. 
