On the Species of Wombats. 267 
Until comparatively recently there was only one species 
generally known to zoologists, the Phascolomys wombat. 
This is now known to be confined to Tasmania and other 
islands south of the Australian continent, and as I have 
demonstrated from the specimens on the table, it is speci- 
fically distinguishable with ease and certainty by the 
characters of the skull and skin pointed out by Dr. Murie 
and others, from the Wombats of the main land, which were 
at one time supposed to be referable to it. Of the continental 
species two had been defined and named by Professor Owen in 
his Catalogue of the Osteological Collections in the Museum of 
the College of Surgeons, from the skulls only, the P. lati- 
frons and the P. platyrhinus ; but no zoologist had satisfac- 
torily connected these with the skins until 1861, when Mr. 
Angas and myself independently,and at the same time, drew 
up descriptions of a soft furred Wombat from South Aus- 
tralia, two individuals of which were received by our 
Acclimatization Society ; the skin and skeleton of the one 
described by me being now on the table. Mr. Angas sug- 
gested that this might be the P. latifrons of Owen, but as 
he only saw the skin, and that species was founded on a skull, 
this specific reference was only a surmise, which was generally 
rejected, as it could not then be supported by any argument. 
The specimen at my disposal, however, having afforded me 
an opportunity of examining its bones, I definitely deter- 
mined for the first time the relation of the skin and skull of 
the P. latifrons, by showing the identity of the skull before 
you with that firstdescribed under that name by Owen in the 
“ Zoological Proceedings” for 1845. This determination I 
forwarded with figures and descriptions to Mr. Gould, since 
published in the last number of his work “On the Mammals 
of Australia,” but by an unfortunate mistake he submitted 
the skull of a different species to Mr. Flower for comparison 
with Professor Owen’s type skull of P. latifroms, and as they 
did not agree, he supposed my determination wrong, and 
using an external character which I was the first to point 
out Gt having escaped Mr. Angas), namely, the hairy in- 
stead of naked mufile. as specific, he proposed for the animal 
the name of P. lasiorhinus; Dr. Gray shortly after, 
showing that the difference between a hairy and naked 
muffle in ‘the Halmaturus, and Macropus, and in Bos, and 
Ovibos was generic in value, formed of it a separate genus, 
naming the creature Lasiorhinus M‘Coyi. Dr. Murie, in 
his paper in the “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society” for 
ie 
