176 Mr. 0. Thomas on 



pale brown. Tail brown above, lighter below, the hairs of 

 the terminal half slightly lengthened, so as to form an 

 inconspicuous blackish pencil, longer belpw than above. 



Skull similar to that oi unicolor in size, the flattened fore- 

 head^ and sharp supraorbital edges^ but the nasals are more 

 broadened posteriorly and the bullse are rather smaller. 



Dimensions of the type : — 



Head and body 107 mm. ; tail 94 ; hind foot 21 ; ear 18. 



Skull : condylo-basal length 28'5 ; basal length 26'3 ; 

 zygomatic breadth 16*3 ; nasals, length 9*7, median breadth 

 2"8, posterior breadth 4*9 ; intertemporal breadth Q'7 ; 

 mastoid breadth 12*2 ; anterior palatine foramina 2*6 ; 

 bulla, parallel with the meatal opening 2*9 ; front of 

 canine to back ofm'* 11 ; combined length of m^.^"'^ 5*5. 



Hab. as above. 



Type. Adult male. B.M. no. 22. 12. 18. 54. Original 

 number 149. Collected 1st June, 1922. 



A very distinct subspecies, distinguished by the nearly 

 uniform brown colour, the wide expansion of the nasals 

 posteriorly, and the small bullse. On these characters it 

 might, indeed, be considered a separate species, were it not 

 that Ph. f, uyiicoloVj as represented by the two co-types, 

 believed to be from the coastal region of Northern New 

 South Wales, and two specimens from Ebor are more or 

 less intermediate between the extremes. 



10. Ornithorhynchus anatinus phoxinus, subsp. n. 



S . 184. Dinner Creek, Ravenshoe. 2900'. 



On examining all the available skulls of Ornithorhynchus 

 with exact localities, it is interesting to find that there is 

 so strong a differentiation in size as to render a distinction 

 into three subspecies to be advisable. Unfortunately, the 

 great majority of the specimens in the local and University 

 Museums of this country have been merely recorded as from 

 '^ Australia," while even in the National Museum the 

 localized examples are sadly few in number. 



However, allowing for the marked difference in the sizes 

 of the sexes, it would appear that the form inhabiting the 

 coastal area from north of Sydney, southwards through 

 Victoria into Tasmania, is of medium size, while that to 

 the west of the dividing range, on the upper waters of the 

 Darling and Murray Rivers, is decidedly larger, while the 

 present animal, from the north of Queensland, is again 

 much smaller. 



The three forms would thus be as follows ; — 



