1881.] MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE KOALA. 181 



tendaut, it slept, perched upon the branches of a tree erected for its 

 use, by day, whilst at night it wandered about the room. Very unfor- 

 tunately, on the night of the 14th of June it was accidentally killed, 

 whilst thus roaming about at night, by getting caught between the top 

 and bottom of a fixed washing-stand, which had been allowed to remain 

 in the room. It had apparently climbed up this and brought down 

 on its neck the heavy lid. Nobody being near, and in spite of 

 evidently determined struggles on its own part, it failed to relieve 

 itself, and so was found dead in the morning from asphyxia. 



The death of this animal, so unfortunate for visitors to the 

 Society's Gardens, has given me the opportunity of putting on record 

 some additional facts concerning the anatomy of the soft parts of 

 this species. Mr. W. Martin, in this Society's 'Proceedings ' for 

 1836 S has described already some of the most striking features of 

 the animal's organization; and in Prof. Owen's 'Anatomy of Verte- 

 brates ' (vol. iii.) a few additional facts concerning it are also recorded. 

 More recently Mr. A. H. Young has described and figured the 

 male reproductive organs (Journ. Anat. Phys. xiii. pp. 305-317, 

 pi. xviii.). All these anatomists, however, had only spirit-preserved 

 specimens to work on ; a few additional observations from the fresh 

 specimen may therefore be worth putting on record, and the liver, 

 brain, and female reproductive organs described in particular, these 

 important parts of the system having been only imperfectly, or not 

 at all, described by my predecessors in this field. 



The following dimensions were taken on the body of the animal: — 



inches, milliin. 



Total length, from tip of nose to end of body . . 17'0 432 



Length of eye 1 "0 25 



„ ear (greatest) 2-15 55 



head 4-0 lOO 



„ nude muzzle 1 '4 35 



chin 2-05 67 



Breadth across muzzle I'O 25 



,, of mouth 1 '3 33 



Distance between cloaca and mammae 1'25 32 



The tail is a mere stump above the cloaca, which latter is well 

 defined by a well-marked circular marginal fold of the integuments. 

 The hallux has no trace of a thumb. The skin is generally flesh- 

 coloured ; but the soles of the manus and pes, together with the 

 naked " muffle," are black. The skin of the large and hairy ears is 

 flesh-coloured. There is a narrow naked ring round the eyes ; and 

 the irides are brown. The pupil is a vertical oval. The nostrils are 

 transversely oblique, the nasal septum measuring 3| millims. The 

 upper lip is split ; but the split does not quite, when the surrounding 

 parts are expanded, reach the nostrils. The skin is sparsely covered 

 with hairs between the rami of the mandible; for nearly two inches 

 behind it the skin is absolutely naked ; and on the sides (running 



1 P.Z.S. 1836, pp. 109-113. 



