1866.] MR. G. KREFFT ON THE AUSTRALIAN DASYURIDyE. 433 



1. Podabrus macrourus (Gould, Mamm. Austr. i. pi. 46). 

 Hab. The east coast of Australia. 



2. P. crassicaudatus (ibid. pi. 47). 



Hab. The interior of South Australia, Victoria, and New South 

 Wales ; in the last two colonies the Lower Murray district. 

 Mammae ten. 



3. P. fuliginosus (ibid. pi. 41). 



Hab. "West Australia. 

 Mammae eight. 



The last-mentioned species, I am informed by Mr. George Masters 

 (who collected during the last nine months at the head of Spencer's 

 Gulf and King George's Sound), is truly terrestrial in its habits, 

 never climbing, and being generally found in deserted ants' nests. 

 Of the forty or fifty specimens obtained, more than thirty were 

 females, and all have eight mammae ; while Antechinus albipes, which 

 is common on the Lower Murray and near Sydney, has ten mammae 

 in the pouch. 



4. P. albipes (ibid. pi. 42). 



5. P. murinus (ibid. pi. 43). 



These two species are no doubt varieties of each other : a few 

 white or black hairs on the tail, or a " wash of brown," as Mr. Gould 

 often has it, are not sufficient to distinguish one animal from another; 

 besides the two plates of these little creatures in the ' Mammals of 

 Australia ' are so much alike that I am sure the artist himself could 

 not tell which was P. murinus and which P. albipes. 



6. P. leucopus (ibid. pi. 35). 



This, according to Mr. Waterhouse, is also a variety. Its habitat 

 is stated to be Tasmania. 



7. P. MITCHELLI, Sp. UOV. 



This new species is by far the largest of the small Dasyuridae with 

 thick woolly furs. A single, much mutilated specimen, with a note 

 attached that it was obtained by the great Australian explorer, I 

 found in a heap of rubbish some years ago. I always thought that 

 it was a new animal ; and having now closely investigated the whole 

 family, I no longer hesitate to describe it. 



The fur is similar to that of Phascogale laniyera of Gould — long, 

 thick, woolly, and beautifully soft hairs slate-grey at the base, light 

 brown on the apical portion, and tipped with black. The ears are 

 long, covered with short brownish hairs. The feet white. The tail 

 is longer than the body ; and what remains of the covering shows that 

 the hair was long and probably ended in a tuft. The under part of 

 the body is whitish. Total length 1 1 inches, the tail being about 

 one-half of it or 5 \ inches, the ears f- inch, tarsi 1 inch. The mea- 

 surement is not strictly accurate, on account of the dried condition of 



