460 MR. E. R. ALSTON ON ANTECHINOMYS. [Junel5, 



Gould \ distinguished by having " only four toes on the hind foot, 

 without any indication of a thumb, the tarsi completely covered 

 with hair, and the underside of the toes and foot alone naked " ^ A 

 fourth genus of Dasyuridae, characterized in the same paper, is Chce- 

 tocerciis, a form which I only know from Mr. Krefft's description 

 and plate, but which is evidently allied to Dasyurus rather thaa 

 to Phascologale^. 



From the facts noted above it appears to me to be evident that 

 Phascologale and Antechinus are much more closely allied with 

 one anotlier than they are to Podabrus and Antechinomys, which, 

 in their turn, are nearly related to one another. If we regard the 

 whole group as a subfamily of the Dasyuridae, the apparent 

 affinities of the genera might be expressed as follows :— 



Phascologalin^. 



Dental formula i. gE|> <"• i~l> P- |E|> ^- 1^ = 46; middle upper 

 incisors larger than the rest, molars with very pointed cusps. Thumb 

 of hind foot small, opposable, nailless, rarely absent. Tail either 

 tufted on the apical portion or clothed with short hairs without. 



[o. Arboreal. Hind feet short and broad, soles naked to the heel, 

 with transversely striated pads. Stomach transversely elongated.] 



1. Phascologale. Middle upper incisors very large, con- 

 siderably raked forward, with indications of an incipient inner cusp. 

 Pouch absent {Krefff). Tail tufted on apical portion, fur sol't. 



2. Antechinus. Middle upper incisors proportionally smaller, 

 placed more perpendicularly. Pouch present, although sometimes 

 very shallow. Tail clad with short hairs throughout its length. 



[/3. Terrestrial. Hind feet slender, the sole more or less hairy on 

 the metatarsus, with tuberculated callosities at the base of the toes. 

 Stomach subglobular.] 



3. Podabrus. Pouch present. Limbs moderate; thumb of 

 hind foot present. Tail clad throughout with short hairs. 



4. Antechinomys. Pouch absent. Forearm and hind foot 

 greatly elongate ; thumb, with its metatarsus, absent. Tail tufted 

 at its apical portion. 



Not having sufficient material for a revision of the numerous 

 described species of Phascoloyalina, I will conclude by noting 

 what little is recorded of the life of Antechinomys, which is a native 

 of east-central Austraha. Mr. Gould's type was obtained by Sir 

 Thomas Mitchell during one of his expeditions into the interior ; 

 Mr. KrefiFt gives " the Lower Murray lliver district, near the 

 junction of the Darling," as a habitat ; and the specimen described 

 above was stated by Mr. L. A. Peers (who presented it to the 

 Cambridge Museum) to have been caught near Cooper's Creek, 

 or the Barcoo, a river which rises in Central Queensland and flows 

 southwards into Lake Eyre, in South Australia. From the structure 

 of the limbs and the characters of the soles of the feet, it is evident 



1 Mamm. Aiistr. i. pi. xsxiii. (1863). » P. Z. S. 1866, p. 434. 



^ Tom. cif. pp. 434, 435, pi. xxxvi. 



