45G MR. E. R. ALSTON ON ANTECHINOMYS. [JuDC 1 5, 



Tail longer than the head and body ; for more than half its length 

 clad with very short adpressed white and brown hairs; these then 

 gradually but rapidly increase in length, and the terminal third of 

 the tail is covered with hairs of about a quarter of an inch in length. 

 Fhascolog ale h^s a similar tail ; but in Antechinus and Podahrus this 

 member is shorter than the head and body, and is clothed throughout 

 with short adpressed hair. 



Measurements of the specimen described (a female) in spirits : — 



inches. 



Length of head and body 3'25 



„ tail (without hairs) 4't)0 



From muzzle to eye -fd 



„ „ to anterior margin of ear-couch .... 'Qb 



Length of ear-conch '65 



Breadth of „ "4.5 



Length of forearm "95 



„ fore foot (without claws) "26 



longest finger '10 



„ lower leg 1 '30 



I) 



hind foot (without claws) 1"15 



longest hind toe (without claws) ...... '20 



Colour of the upper parts brownish mouse-grey, darker on the 

 occiput, paler on the face and upper part of the limbs ; the hairs 

 dusky at their bases, then yellowish white, and mostly tipped with 

 dark brown ; round the eye is an ill-defined dark brown ring, pro- 

 duced in front. All the lower parts, the fore limbs from the elbow, 

 and hind limbs from the middle of the tibia pure white ; the belly 

 with a large almost naked space, not involved, and showing only 

 (races of the mammae. The short adpressed hairs of the basilar 

 part of the tail are mixed white and brown, the former largely pre- 

 ponderating ; the longer hairs towards the end rich dark reddish 

 brown. 



Skeleton. 



The s/iidl of Anfechiyiomijs presents no marked distinction from that 

 of the allied genera, which agree, as Mr. Waterhouse has remarked', 

 in the large size of the brain-case and foramen magnum, and in the 

 feebleness of the muscular ridges, when contrasted with Dasyiiriis and 

 I'hylacimts. It is, however, comparatively narrow and elongated, and 

 the mandible is very slender, with a high coronoid process. 



'I'he vertebrce number : — cerv. 7, dors. 13, lumb. 7, sac. 3, caud. 

 25, a formula in which its allies agree, save in the tail. The lumbar 

 vertebrae have the spinous processes better developed than in Poda- 

 hrus, although comparatively much smaller than in Phascologale &nA. 

 Antechitws, while tlieir metapophyses and transverse processes are 

 more feeble than in any of the other genera. The caudal vertebrae 

 are very long and slender, especially towards the extremity of the 

 tail. 



' Nat. Hist. Mamm. i. p. 403. 



