1865.] DR. J. MURIE ON THE SPECIES OF PHASCOLOMYS. 853 
Amblotes, Mliger, loc. cit. p. 78. 
Characters.—Fur rough and coarse; muffle naked. Skull of 
moderate breadth in proportion to length; postorbital ridge and 
frontal process obsolete; nasal bones of moderate breadth ; supra- 
tympanic cavity moderately excavated; foramen magnum of a 
trefoil figure. Upper incisor teeth forming one-third of a circle, and 
set with the enamelled surface chiefly outwards. Dorsal vertebre 
15, lumbar vertebre 4, and ribs 15 in number; transverse processes 
of caudal vertebrze long and broad. 
1. PHAscoLoMYS WOMBAT. 
Body of moderate size ; seldom more than 3 feet long. Ears short 
and rounded. Colour dark grizzly greyish brown, produced by 
dark-brownish hairs for the most part tipped with silvery grey, the 
longer ones with black points. Skull between 54 and 62 inches in 
length ; nasal bones relatively long and narrow ; supratympanic ex- 
cavation very shallow; postpalatine foramina oblong and of mode- 
rate size; scapula long as compared with its breadth. 
Phascolomys wombat, Péron et Lesueur, Voyage aux Terres 
Australes. 
Wombat, Collins’s Account of the English Colony in New South 
Wales, &c., p. 153, with plate, 1802. 
P. fossor, Sevasteanof, in Mém. de l’Acad. Impér. de St. Péters- 
bourg, i. p. 444, 1809. 
Womback, Bewick, Quadrupeds, 6th ed. p. 522, 1811. 
P. wombatus, Leach, Zool. Miscell. ii. p. 101, pl. 96, 1815. 
P. fusca, Desm. Mamm. parti. p. 276, 1820. 
P. bassii, Lesson, Manuel de Mamm. p. 229, 1827. 
P. ursinus, Gray, List of Mamm. in Brit. Mus. p. 95, 1843, and 
Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xi. p. 458, 1863. 
P. wombat, Waterhouse, Nat. Hist. Mamm. vol. i. p- 246, 1846 ; 
Gould, Mamm. of Australia, vol. i. pls. 55, 56; Angas, P. Z.S. 1861, 
p- 269. 
2. PHASCOLOMYS PLATYRHINUS. 
Body large, generally above 3 feet long. Colour varying from 
pale yellowish brown (isabelline hue) to blackish brown, or even 
approaching black, but nearly always uniform according to the 
variety ; no silvery-grey tint. Skull from 7 to 8 inches long; nasal 
bones relatively broad to their length; supratympanic cavity mode- 
rately deep; postpalatine foramina triangular, large; scapula broad 
as compared with its length. 
Phascolomys platyrhinus, Owen (type skull), Cat. Osteol. Series 
Mus. Roy. Coll. Surgs. vol. i. p. 334, 1853. 
P. mitchelli, Owen (fossil species described from fragments of 
teeth), Appendix to Sir Thos. Mitchell’s Three Expeditions into 
Australia, vol. ii. p. 368, pl. 48, 1830. 
P. latifrons, Gould (the pale variety), Mammals of Australia, 
vol. i. text and plates 57 & 58, 1863. 
