BY C. W. DE VIS. 



109 



ings may be, and are, used as specific characters, and we shall 

 find them exemplified in the species which await an introduc- 

 tion to the Society. One consideration remains. The breeders 

 of domestic animals know full well their tendency to re-exhibit 

 ancestral characters, including colouring and arrangement of 

 colours. To them the recurrence of peculiar markings in 

 several strains of blood would point to their origin from a 

 common stock having those or such-like markings ; and they 

 would not be slow to express their contempt for the judgment 

 of a gainsay er. But whether they are more rational than their 

 neighbours, who prefer to regard such similitudes as coinci- 

 dences, or the result of being called into being to perform 

 hypothetically similar functions under similar conditions, I 

 leave you to discuss, and proceed. 



It has been well remarked that the Cape York Peninsula 

 appears to have a fauna ])eculiarly its own, and experience tends 

 to confirm the idea. Many a harvest has been gathered there ; 

 yet, gleanings, sufficient to reward the seeker, still remain on 

 the ground. It is, indeed, more than possible that, when 

 investigation of the interior of the Peninsula becomes safer, a 

 wealth of unknown life will be brought to light. We have a 

 hint of this in the discovery of a fine wallaby, whose haunt of 

 open forest is, as yet, shared by aboriginal man. It is the most 

 conspicuous of the novelties procured by Mr. K. Broadbent 

 during his late sojourn at Cape York, where, by the kind pro- 

 tection of Mr. F. Jardine, he was enabled to penetrate about 

 thirty miles inland from Somerset. We describe it under the 

 name of 



Halmaturus Jardixii, (n.s.) 



Size, large ; habit, elongate ; head with a convex profile, and 

 comparatively short, pointed ears ; tail, long and thick ; general 

 colour, russet-grey on the upper parts, grey and dirty- white on 

 the lower ; a distinct streak across the thigh ; a large, reddish- 

 brown patch behind the shoulder ; a dark streak from near the 

 eye towards the snout, with a pale one below it, both ill- 

 defined ; ears externally edged and tipped with black, internally 

 whitish, with a narrow black edge at the tip ; hands dusky, 

 becoming nearly black on the fingers ; feet, blackish above, 

 towards the toes, and on the middle of the great toe ; tail, black 

 on the upper surface near the end, and with a short, black tuft 

 at the tip ; fur of the lower parts, long and soft, yellowish 

 white on the belly, becoming lighter towards the chest, still 

 lighter on the throat. 



