274 THE ANIMALS OF NEW GUINEA 



whereas they belong to the vittatus group. Hence it seems indisputable that the 

 Papuan wild swine are the descendants of tamed representatives of the latter 

 introduced by man ; the length of time they have been in their present home being 

 sufficient for them to have acquired distinctive peculiarities of their own. And 

 from the migrations of natives, which appear to have taken place at an early period, 

 it seems probable that in New Guinea the introduction of the ancestors of the wild 

 swine was previous to the arrival of Europeans in these islands, but that in the 

 Moluccas, Bismarck, and Caroline Islands the introduction was made by Europeans 

 during the eighteenth century. 



These conclusions are strengthened by the fact that whereas the wild swine 

 of New Guinea differ to a certain degree in external characters from the typical 

 S. vittatus, those of the Bismarck Archipelago and the Caroline Islands are 

 practically indistinguishable from the latter. In the Marianne Islands S. vittatus 

 occurs partially in a domesticated and partially in a half-wild condition, but there 

 are also swine which appear to be a cross between that species and the European 

 swine (8. scrofa), these being probably the product of interbreeding between a 

 domesticated Italian breed and the S. vittatus stock introduced at an earlier period. 

 Among the Papuan marsupials is the Aru Island wallaby 



Marsupials. 



(Macropus brunii), the first member of the kangaroo tribe known 

 to Europeans, a specimen having been brought to Batavia so early as 1711. The 

 agile wallaby (M. agilis) is common to Australia and New Guinea ; but the great 

 feature of the latter island, so far as the kangaroo tribe is concerned, is the 

 presence of one peculiar genus and the number of species of tree-kangaroos. The 

 solely Papuan genus includes the dorca-kangaroos, which stand to a great extent 

 midway between the more typical members of the family and the tree-kangaroos, 

 the disproportion in length between the front and hind limbs being much less 

 marked than in the former group. The typical species is the brown dorca 

 {Dorcopsis muelleri), which recalls the Aru Island wallaby in general appearance, 

 but, like the other dorcas, is distinguished by the forward direction of the hair on 

 the back of the neck, as well as by the large, broad, bare muzzle and the small 

 ears. Of the tree-kangaroos, the black Denclrolagtis ursinus inhabits north- 

 western New Guinea, and is blackish above and puce-brown below; the so-called 

 brown tree-kangaroo (D. inustus), on the other hand, is grizzled grey ; while 

 Doria's tree-kangaroo (D. dorianus), of the south-eastern districts, is dark brown, 

 and further distinguished by the forward direction of the hair of the back. Other 

 notable species are Bennett's tree-kangaroo, D. bennetti, and D. aurantiaca, which 

 show a considerable amount of yellow in their colouring, more especially on the tail. 

 In the phalanger group the spotted cuscus (Phalanger maculatus) referred 

 to in the preceding chapter, is common to Australia and Papua, a second species, 

 the grey cuscus (P. orientalis), inhabiting Timor and some of the neigh- 

 bouring islands ; and there are several others from New Guinea. The ring-tailed 

 phalangers of the genus Pseudochirus, which are represented in northern 

 Queensland, have numerous Papuan species belonging to the group without a 

 white tip to the tail. The Australian dormouse-phalangers have a Papuan 

 representative in the long-tailed Dromicia caudata ; and the tiny pen-tailed 

 phalanger (Distcechurus peni%atus) is a purely Papuan type, remarkable on 



