103 



Female uniform ashy-grey ; rump and base of tail, throat, ehesi 

 and belly yellowish dirty-white. 



Phalangista nudicaudata, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1849, IK). 



Hab. (Jape York. 



This species is only known lor " a female two-thirds grown, Bent 

 from Cape York" to the British Museum by John Macgilhvray, 

 Esq. 



It is very like the ashy variety of C. maculatus, hut the front 

 lower cutting-teeth are much broader, and the tail, which has the 

 bones still remaining on it, is considerably shorter than any of our 

 specimens of C. mam In tux. 



The specimen in the British Museum is that described by Mr. 

 Gould. 



Mr. Gould refers this auimal to the subgenus Pseudocheirus of the 

 genus Phalangista, and calls it P. nudicaudata, because it "differs 

 from all the other Australian members of the genus in having the 

 apical three-fourths of its tail entirely destitute of hair." But Mr. 

 Gould overlooked the fact that it is not a Pseudocheirus, but a Cus- 

 cus, all the species of which have the major part of the tail naked ; 

 and the species under consideration has the naked part of the tail, 

 and indeed the tail itself, shorter than the rest of the species ; so that 

 the specific name of nudicauduta is singularly inapplicable. 



The light mark on the rump, which Mr. Gould compared to that 

 of the Koala, is also common to the species of Cuscus, and is pro- 

 bably produced by the habit of the animal sitting on its rump, rolled 

 up into a ball, on the fork of the branches of trees. 



The skull shows that the animal is much younger than the label 

 indicates, as it appears only to have the milk teeth, and the broad 

 lower incisors of the younger specimens of this genus. The skull 

 differs both from that of C. ursinus and C. maculatus, but it is too 

 young to predict what may be the normal form of the adult animal. 



The front half of the space between the eyes is rather convex, but 

 not nearly so much so as the young skull of C. maculatus ; and the 

 front of the forehead just behind the convexity described is rather 

 concave; this concavity has no resemblance to the deep concavity 

 occupying nearly the whole space between the eyes in C. ursinus and 

 C. maculatus. 



3. Cuscus URSINUS. 



Ears almost hidden in the fur, clothed with fur internally and ex- 

 ternally ; fur blackish-ash, with larger silvery hairs; head, throat, 

 belly and tail rather pale brown; forehead Bat, concave; tori head 

 of the skull flat, deeply concave ; grinders large, in a Btrongly-arched 

 series. 



Phalangista (Ceonix) ursina, Temm. Bionog. i. 10. t. I. f. I-.'!; 

 t. 2. f. 1-5, skull ; t. .'!, Bkeleton ; Lesson, Cent. Zool. t. 10; Water- 

 house, Mamin. i. 267s part. 



Hab. Celebes. 



We have in the British linseum only a Bingle specimen of tin- 

 species with its skull, which was obtained from the Zoological Society, 



