82 MACKOPODIDiE. 



b. LagoTchestes conspicillatus, Tar. leichardti. 



Lagorchestes leichardti, Oould, Mamm. Austr. ii. pi. Ix. (finimal) 

 (1863) ; Kr^t, Cat. Mamm. Austr. Mus. p. 52 (1864) ; id. Austr. 

 Vert. p. 11 (1871). .. 



Lagorchestes conspicillatus, var. leichardti, Coll. Zool. Jahrb. n. 

 p. 889 (1887). 



With all the essential characters of the typical form, but diflfering 

 in the much greater brilliancy of the markings and colour. The 

 yeUowish grey of the back is replaced by deep fawn, the dull chest- 

 nut patches round the eye by much broader and brilliant rufous 

 ones ; the yellowish grey on the tips of the lateral underfur by rich 

 rufous, and this colour extends forwards along the side of the head 

 below the ear. Chin, chest, belly, and pale lateral bands nearly 

 pure white, contrasting markedly with the rufous of the sides and 

 back. The ears also are slightly longer than in L. conspicillatus, 

 although still decidedly shorter than in L. leporoides. 



Dimensions. 



2- 



a (skin), 

 millim. 



Head and body (c.) 520 



Tail 460 



Hindfoot 137 



Ear .. .• 39 



Hah. North Australia, from east to west. 



Type in the Sydney Museum. 



This beautiful Wallaby is certainly not specifically separable from 

 L. conspicillatus, to which it bears very much the same relationship 

 that Macropus ruficoUis var. henne.ttii does to the typical form 

 (see suprd, p. 35). It is probably spread over the whole of 

 central and north-western tropical Australia, while the true 

 L. conspicillatus is as yet only known from certain islands off the 

 North-west coast; the latter, therefore, although the earlier 

 described, being really, in nature, but a more dully coloured and 

 shorter-eared insular variety of the continental form. It is some- 

 what unfortunate that the rules forbid our recognizing this fact in 

 the nomenclature of the two, and regarding L. leichardti as the 

 original, and the insular form as the variety. 



a. 



i Ad. gk. I Q Roebuck Bay, N.W. coast Mr. Duboulay [0.1. 



I Skull, i +■ of Australia. 



2. Lagorchestes leporoides. 



Macropus leporoides, Gould, P. Z. S. 1840, p. 93 ; Waterh. Jard. 

 Nat. Lihr., Mamm. xi. p. 204 (1841) ; Less. N. Tahl. M. A., Mamm. 

 p. 194 (1842); Gieb. Sriur/.^. 67.'i (1859); id. Thierr. i. p. 23H 

 (1859) ; id. Bronn's Kl. n. Ordn. vi. Abth. v. pi. xlvii. fig. 21 (17) 



