734 OLDFIELD THOMAS. 



3t. Dactylopsila melampus, Thos. 



S 7. Young. Humboldt Bay. Dr. Gjellerup. 



On laying out the whole séries of this genus available, amounting to 24 spécimens 

 from varioùs localities, I regret that it seems impossible to sort them locally by the détails 

 of their markings. Spécimens from identical places dififer widely, and the use of such cha- 

 racters as are given in Dr. MATSCHlE's paper on them ') proves to be entirely fallacious. I 

 am indeed quite doubtful now whether even D. melampus shoul be specifically distinguished 

 from trivirgata, while I am sure that several of the other species, based for the most part 

 on single spécimens, that hâve been established by MATSCHIE, are mereiy individual varia- 

 tions, their colour characters breaking dovvn when larger séries are examined. 



For instance our two Arfak spécimens do not agrée with MATSCHlE's ^arfakensis", 

 while they do with a Sorong skin topotypical of ^albertisi" and also with the original trivir- 

 gata of the Aru Islands. Our two skins of D. hindenburgi again do agrée with the description 

 in the possession of a very bushy dark-coloured tail, but in their detailed markings they are 

 différent in various respects both from each other and from the original type. And finally 

 one of the original Katau spécimens obtained by D'ALBERTTS is quite without the white 

 wrist and ankle markings stated by MATSCHIE to distinguish his „katauï\ which was based 

 on another of the self-same set. However, for the présent the black-footed forms may provi- 

 sionally be kept distinct from the white-footed. 



Throughout mammals the detailed distribution of contrasted markings of lines and 

 spots is always liable to be deceptive, when it does not affect the gênerai coloration of the 

 animal. The latter is usually a natural resuit of the environment, and therefore suitable for 

 systematic use, while the former is often purely individual, and should be used with very 

 great caution, and only after the examination of considérable séries of spécimens. The spots 

 and stripes of Cats, Genêts, Lycaon and other mammals hâve thus often caused the founda- 

 tion of many perfectly illusory species when they hâve been treated as exact systematic 

 characteristics. 



[Pseudochirus beauforti, sp. n. 



cf. Lorentz River. Dr. G. Versteeg. Type. 



A coppery species like P. cupreus, but smaller. 



Intermediate in size between P. cupreus and albertisi, smaller than the former, larger 

 than the latter. External characters almost precisely as in the former, whose description 2 ) is 

 almost entirely applicable to the présent animal, except that the belly is a „pale pinkish- 

 cinnamon" and there are no white inguinal patches. Scrotum white; brown in the type of 

 cupreus. Hands and feet becoming black on the digits. Tail similarly black and short-haired 

 distally, this character distinguishing both species from the more bushy-tailed albertisi. 



Skull essentially quite as in cupreus, apart from its smaller size, with similarly com- 

 pressed interorbital région. Supraorbital ridges well defined, but not so absolutely on the edge 

 of the interorbital space, so that there is a slight convexity below and outside them. Teeth 



1) Mitth. Zool. Mus. Berlin, VIII, p. 305. 1916. 



2) Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) XVIII. p. 145. 1897. 



