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IX. Report on the Mammals collected hy the British Ornithologists Union Expedition 

 and the Wollaston Expedition in Butch New Guinea. By Oldfield Thomas, 

 F.R.S., F.Z.S. 



[Received February IS, 1914 ; Read April 7, 1914.] 



Index. 



Page 

 Introduction and list of new species discovered 315 



Systematic List 317 



XhE collection of Mammals made by the members of the British Ornithologists' 

 Union Expedition and the Wollaston Expedition to the Snow Mountains, Dutch 

 New Guinea, forms undoubtedly a valuable accession to the National Museum, 

 in spite of the fact that, owing to the unexpected poverty in mammalian life of the 

 districts visited, it is by no means so large or varied as had been originally hoped. 

 Had the keenness and undoubted collecting skill that was exerted by the members 

 of the Expeditions been in operation in almost any other part of New Guinea, the 

 result would certainly have been much larger, but there seems to have been an 

 almost entire absence of the interesting arboreal forms in which New Guinea is 

 elsewhere so rich. The Dyaks who formed part of the Expeditions were veell 

 accustomed to catching arboreal animals in the forests of Borneo, and were urged 

 to do their utmost in this direction ; hundreds of trees were cut down both for 

 searching purposes and in connection with the general progress of the Expeditions, 

 but almost no arboreal species (and notably no Pogonomys) were obtained, and 

 we are driven to the conclusion that, in striking contrast to British New Guinea, 

 but very few are present in this dismal and water-logged part of the island. 



What the Expeditions did obtain was a very fine series of the terrestrial animals, 

 and especially of the rodents. Of these, the most valuable are the series of rats 

 of the genus Uromys, a group of exceeding difficulty, and one in which the set now 

 obtained will be of the utmost ser^dce. Eight species of this genus were obtained, 

 of which five have proved to be new. 



The following is a list of the new species discovered by the two Expeditions :— 



Ilipposideros wollastoni. 

 Emballonura fitrax. 



,, papuana. 



Taphozous granti. 

 Stenomys klossi. 

 VOL. xs. — PART IX. No. 1. — Hay, 1914. 2 x 



