4. PHAscoLoeALB. 273 



4. PHASCOLOGALE. „ 



Type. 



Phasco^^ale, Temm. Mon. Mamm. i. p. 66 (1827) . . Ph. peBiculata. 



Anteclimus, Mackay, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) viii. 



p. 241 (1841) Pli. flavipes. 



Tapoa, Less. N. Tab!. R. A., Mamm. p. 190 (1842) . Ph. penicillata. 

 Ascogale, Gloger, Sandh. Naturg. i. p. 83 (1842) . . Ph. peniciUata. 



Myoictis, Ch-ay, P. Z. S. 1858, p. Ill Ph. waUacei. 



Chsetocercus, Krefft, P. Z. S. 1866, p. 434 Ph. cristicaudata. 



Dasycercus, Peters, SB. Ges. not. Fremide, 1875, 



p. 73 Ph. cristicaudata. 



Size small compared to Dasyurus; general form slender and 

 graceful. Ehinarium naked, deeply grooved below, where it passes 

 into the upper lip. Ears rounded, more convex below and less 

 pointed than in Basyurus ; metatragus large, thin, its terminal part 

 showing scarcely a trace of the folding found in Basyurus. Tail 

 long, very variable in its covering, either bushy, crested or nearly 

 naked. Peet broad and short ; toes subequal, with sharp curved 

 claws ; hallux always present, but short and clawless ; palms and 

 soles granulated, entirely naked, with five transversely striated pads 

 on each, but the postero-internal one (poUical or hallucal) often 

 subdivided into two, making sis in all (see PI. XXIII. fig. 3). 

 Pouch practically obsolete, its walls represented merely by low folds 

 of skin. Mammse 4, 6, 8, or 10. 



Skull much as in Basyurus, but smaller, slenderer, less ridged, 

 and more flattened, especially in the frontal region. Nasals markedly 

 expanded behind. Interorbital region broad. Palatal vacuities 

 variable, generally present. Bullse hemispherical, transparent. 



BentUion :-I. l^l^, C. {, P. J^^lti. M. i^^^ x 2=46. 



AU the teeth very much as in Basyurus, but smaller and more 

 acutely cuspidate. Upper i.' markedly distinguished from the other 

 incisors, conical, pointed, projecting forwards ; lateral incisors 

 flattened. Upper p.x and p.^ as in Basyurus ; p.* present, generally 

 very similar in shape to p.^ and p.^, occasionally small and siagle- 

 rooted, its size varying very much within the genus, but very con- 

 stant in each species, and therefore affording excellent specific 

 characters. Lower teeth similar to upper ; p.* corresponding very 

 much in its variations to its fellow above, but never exceeding p.' 

 in size, and sometimes altogether wanting. 



Milk-premolar (PI. XXIV. fig. 4) varying in size and persistency 

 according to the development of the permanent p.* Well developed 

 and long persistent in the species with large p.* ; small or altogether 

 absent in the others. 



Habits. Arboreal, insectivorous. 



Range. Whole of Papuan and Australian subregions. 



The members of this genus evidently take the place in the Aus- 

 tralian region fliled in the Oriental by the Tu^aice and in the 



* Absent in Ph. .cristicaudata and (generally) in Ph. thorbecMama. 



T 



