112 MR. OLDFIEfiD THOMAS ON A NEW KANGAROO. [Feb. 20, 



February 20, 1900. 

 Dr. Henry Woodward, F.K.S., V.P., in the Chair. 



Mr. Oldfield Thomas exhibited the skin of a small Kangaroo 

 which had been presented to the British Museum by the Society's 

 President, the Duke of Bedford. It had lived some little time 

 at Woburn, and was said to have been brought from Queensland 

 or North Australia. 



It was most nearly allied to the "West Australian Macropus 

 eugenii Desm., with which it agreed in size and skull-characters, but 

 differed in its uniform pale colour and remarkably soft thick f ur. 



Mr. Thomas proposed to call it Macropus bedfordi, and described 

 it as follows : — 



Size as in M. eugenii. Fur long, thick, soft, and woolly, the hairs 

 of the back 33-35 mm. in length. General colour uniform pale 

 isabelline fawn, quite different from the dark colour of M. eugenii. 

 The hairs are slaty grey at their bases, then brown, with a 

 whitish subterminal band and a pale brown tip. Centre of face 

 like back, slightly darkening in middle line between ears and down 

 the neck to form a faintly darker nuchal line. Face-markings 

 almost obsolete, the usual light cheek-line but little lighter, and the 

 dark orbital and ramal streaks scarcely darker than the general 

 colour. Ears short, their backs terminally sandy fawn, basally 

 and a patch below their bases externally dull white. Chin and 

 throat dull white ; chest and belly whitish fawn, but little lighter 

 than the sides. Inguinal region, front of hips, and a line down the 

 front of the lower leg white. Shoulders and outer sides of fore 

 limbs like body, with scarcely a trace of rufous ; an indistinct 

 darker elbow-mark present : hands whitish brown above. Legs 

 sandy brown behind and laterally, white in front ; upper surface 

 of feet sandy white, not darkening terminally, the long hairs at 

 the base of the claws clear yellowish white. Tail short, thick, 

 sandy fawn above and on the sides, whitish below, not darkening 

 terminally. 



Skull much as in M. eugenii. Disproportion rather greater 

 than usual between the small permanent premolar (p 3 of modern 

 nomenclature) ] and the large square mp* (m 1 of the Catalogue of 

 Marsupials). 



Dimensions of the type, measured in skin: — -Head and body 

 550 mm.; tail 360; hind foot 115; ear, from notch, 52. 



Skull : basal length 83 ; greatest breadth 49 ; nasals 34 x 15'5 ; 

 interorbital breadth 16 ; diastema 20-5 ; length of p 3 4*5 ; com- 

 bined length of three anterior grinding-teeth (mp^-m 1 ) 17. 



Type. Female. B.M. No. 0.2.19.1. Presented by the Duke of 

 Bedford. 



This little Wallaby differs from its only near ally, M. eugenii, 



1 See Lydekker, P.Z.S. 1899, p. 922. 



