112 



ON APPARENTLY NEW SPECIES OF HALMATURUS. 



Inches. Inches, 



Length of body 24 Of ear • ... 1-10 lines. 



Of tail 14 Of head to the ear ... 3| 



Of tarsus ... ... 5 



I find great difficillty in believing that this, the common 

 padymelon of the Moreton Bay and Darling Downs districts, 

 has remained unnoticed until now. No English description of 

 it exists, but it is possible that a German periodical, not in the 

 Museum library, may contain one. If so, the price paid by the 

 colonial student for an accessible description will be the encum- 

 brance of one more synonym in our lists ; if not, the name 

 proposed (temporalis) may be thought suitable. The nearest 

 allies of the species seem to be Wilcoxi, McCoy and apicalis, 

 Gld. The upper surface of the head is light rufous-brown, 

 becoming greyish-brown anteriorly, and light-brown round the 

 muzzle. The side of the head to the upper lip is rufous, much 

 brighter round the base of the ears, and on the upper part of 

 the base of the ears externally there is a large spot of rich 

 rufous ; a clear white facial streak, beginning indistinctly 

 beneath the eye, bordei-s the upper lip, and is defined below by 

 a rufous-gi'ey continuation from the grey of the neck. The 

 hairs of the base of the ears externally are long and pale buff, 

 contrasting with the rich rufous around ; towards the tip they 

 are also long, but more scanty. The apical two-thirds of the 

 ears externally is a rich brown ; the occiput dark-brown, with- 

 out any rufous tinge. The spot on the chin is dark-brown. 

 The anterior part of the back, top and sides of the neck, and 

 part of the shoulders dark-grey, pencilled with white, becoming 

 lighter grey on the fore part of the shoulder ; yellow, j^encilled 

 with brown, on the arm, and pure brown on the hands. The 

 back is grizzled rufous-grey, regularly pencilled with black ; 

 the black is lost upon the flanks and pai't of the thighs ; the 

 grizzling also on the hind part of the thighs and round the root 

 of the tail, which are smoky-brown. The shanks are bright 

 rust, darkei' than the temples, but less rich than the back of the 

 ears. The somewhat obscure femoral streak is long, running 

 from below the knee well upon the haunch. Hind feet 

 yellowish, much pencilled with black. The base of the tail, 

 beyond the smoky-brown root, is dark-grey, like the shoulders ; 

 this colour is continued nearly to the tip, but is pencilled with 

 white in the middle. The tail beneath is yellowish- white, purer 

 white at the base ; all beneath nearly pure white. The tail is 

 well clothed above and below, but on the middle of the sides 

 the scales are nearly uncovered. 



