536 Ma. OLDFIELD THOMAS OX [May 15, 



2. On Mammals from Northern Australia presented to the 

 National Museum by Sir Wm. Ingram, Bt., and the Hon. 

 John Forrest. By Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S., F.Z.S.* 



[Received April 2, 1906.] 



(Plate XXXVII.t) 



The Northern Territory of South Australia has a Mammalian 

 fauna of a very peculiar type, and one that is far from being 

 worked out, in spite of the labours of Dr. Elsey, Mr. Gould's 

 collectors, and others in early days, and of Dahl, Tunney, and 

 others more recently. Similarly the centre of the continent is 

 badly represented in the National Collection, although Prof. W, 

 B. Spencer, of Melbourne, who first went there with the Horn 

 Expedition, has laid the foundation of a proper knowledge of it. 



Now, thanks to the liberality of Sir William Ingram, Bart., 

 and of the Hon. John Forrest, of Brisbane, a zoological collector 

 has been put to work at Alexandria, a station intermediate in 

 position between the two areas above referred to, and therefore 

 in a district possessing a very special interest to the student of 

 Australian zoology. 



Alexandria is situated about lat. 19° S., long. 137° E., about 200 

 miles inland from the S.W. coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and 

 lies in an area draining inwards to the Polygonum swamp. The 

 watershed-boundaiies would, however, appear to be low, and 

 unlikely to act as barriers to the dispei'sal of species, so that in 

 this region the question of drainage is not likely to be of great 

 zoological importance. Collections have also been made near 

 Alroy, about 100 miles to the west of Alexandria. Perhaps later 

 the exploration may be extended still further west to the ranges 

 along the Trans-continental Telegraph-line. 



Mr. W. Stalker, the collector employed, has naturally found 

 immense difSculties in the way of collecting in this desert region, 

 owing to the long-continued drought, no rains of any value having 

 fallen for several years, and the fauna being therefore at its 

 lowest ebb. 



For this reason the collection of which I here give a list is a 

 most creditable one for the time in which it was obtained, and as 

 rain has since fallen in the district we may hope that Mr. Stalker 

 will now be enabled to capture many further forms of interest 

 that have hitherto escaped him. 



The present collection contains examples of 16 species, of which 

 five are new. The most interesting of these is the peculiar little 

 fiat-headed Marsupial mouse which I have named Phascogale 



* [The complete accounts of the new species described in this communication 

 appear here; the names and preliminary diagnoses of two of the species were 

 published in the ' Abstract,' and these are distinguished by the names being under- 

 lined. — Editor.] 



t For explanation of the Plate, see p. 543. 



