PERAMELIDZ 143 
hollow places. They are rather mixed feeders; but insects, worms, 
roots, and bulbs constitute their ordinary diet. The various species 
are widely distributed over Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and 
several of the adjacent islands, as Aru, Kei, and New Ireland. The 
best known are—P. gunni (Fig. 42), bougainvillei, nasuta, obesula, and 
macrura from Australia, and P. doreyana, raffrayana, and longicaudata 
from New Guinea. 
Remains apparently referable to existing species are found in 
the cave-deposits of New South Wales. 
Peragale1—Molar teeth curved, typically with longer crowns 
and shorter roots than in the last. Hinder extremities proportionally 
longer, and hallux without claw. Muzzle much elongated and 
narrow. Fur soft and silky. lars very large, long, and pointed. 
Tail long, its apical half clothed on the dorsal surface with long 
hairs which form a crest. Vertebre: C7, D 13, L 6,8 2, C 23. 
Skull distinguished from that of Perameles by the large size and 
double structure of the auditory bulla, of which the mastoid portion 
is inflated. There is also an abrupt contraction of the muzzle at 
the third premolar. 
The type species of Rabbit- Bandicoot (P. lagotis), as these 
animals are called, is found in Western Australia, and also occurs 
fossil in the cave-deposits of New South Wales. It is the largest 
member of the family, being about the size of the common Rabbit, 
to which animal it bears sufficient superficial resemblance to have 
acquired the name of “Native Rabbit” from the colonists. It 
burrows in the ground, but in other respects resembles the true 
Bandicoots in its habits. 
The smaller P. leucura has short-crowned molars, with distinct 
cusps, which are almost obsolete in the type species. 
Cheropus.*—Dentition generally resembling that of Perameles, 
but the canines are less developed, and in the upper jaw two-rooted. 
Limbs very slender ; posterior nearly twice the length of the anterior. 
Fore feet with the functional toes reduced to two, the second and 
third, of equal length, with closely united metacarpals and short, 
sharp, slightly curved, compressed claws. First toe represented by 
a minute rudiment of a metacarpal bone ; the fourth by a metacarpal 
and two small phalanges without a claw, and not reaching the 
middle of the metacarpal of the third ; fifth entirely absent. Hind 
foot (Fig. 43) long and narrow, mainly composed of the strongly 
developed fourth toe, terminating in a conical pointed nail, with a 
strong pad behind it; the hallux absent or represented by a rudi- 
mentary metatarsal ; the remaining toes completely developed, and 
with claws, but exceedingly slender; the united second and third 
reaching a little way beyond the metatarso-phalangeal articulation of 
1 Gray, in Grey’s Australia, vol. ii. p. 401 (1841). 
2 Ogilby, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1838, p. 25. 
