PETROGALE BRACHYOTIS, Go^^rf. 



Short-eared Rock- Wallaby. 



Spec. Char. — Pet. vellere efusco cinereo, apud partes inferiores albescente ; caudafloccosa, ad apicem nigra ; utraque gem 



linea albescente not at a. 

 Descr. — General colour greyish brown ; under surface of the body dirty white, obscurely tinted with yellowish : on each 



side of the body, near the base of the fore leg, a dusky patch; a dirty white mark is observable on each side 



of the head, and an indistinct mark on the base of the thigh ; tail moderately bushy, coloured at the base like 



the body, but the apical third dusky black. 



Male. 



feet, inches. 



Length from the nose to the extremity of the tail . - 3 



of tail 1 3 



„ tarsus and toes, including the nail 5 



„ arms and hands, including the nails 3-|- 



„ face from the tip of the nose to the base of the ear ... Sf 



„ ear If 



Petrogale brachyotis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, for Oct. 1840. 



This new species of Rock -Wallaby was presented to me by Captain George Grey, the present Governor of South 

 Australia, who procured it on the north-west coast while traversing that previously unexplored region. Only two spe- 

 cimens were collected : these fortunately proved to be a male and a female, and apparently adult. It differs from 

 most of the other species with which I am acquainted in the shortness and scantiness of its hair, which may, perhaps, 

 be attributed to the great heat of the latitudes it inhabits, and the peculiar localities to which the animal resorts, viz. 

 hard craggy surfaces exposed to the burning sun. The following account, which has been kindly furnished me by 

 His Excellency, is all that is known respecting it : — 



" I procured this species near Hanover Bay, December the 29th, 1837. It is excessively wild and shy in its habits ; fre- 

 quenting in the day-time the highest and most inaccessible rocks, and only comes down to the valleys to feed early in the 

 morning and late in the evening. When disturbed in the day-time it bounds among the roughest and most precipitous rocks, 

 apparently with the greatest facihty, and is so watchful and wary that it is by no means easy to get a shot at it. How it can 

 support the excessive heat of the sand rocks amongst which it always lies is to me truly astonishing, the temperature there 

 during the hottest part of the day being frequently 136°. I have never seen this animal on the low land or the plains, and I 

 consequently believe it to be entirely an inhabitant of the mountains." 



