PHASCOGALE PENICILLATA. 
Brush-tailed Phascog’ale. 
Tapoa-tqfa, White’s Journ., pi. in p. 281. 
Didelphys penicillata, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. i. part 2. p. 502. pi. 113. fig. 1. 
Dasyurus penicillatus, Geoff. Ann. du Mus., tom. iii. p. 361. 
Tafa, Geoff., loc. cit. 
Phascogale penicillata, Temm. Monogr. de Mamm., tom. i. p. 58. — Skull, pi. vii. figs. 9-12.— Waterh. Nat. Lib. 
Mamm., vol. ix. (Marsupialia), p. 136, pi. viii. — -List of Mamm. in Brit. Mus. Coll., p. 98. 
Tapoa-tafa, Aborigines of New South Wales. 
Bul-loo-wa, Aborigines of the York district of Western Australia. 
Bal-a-ga, Aborigines of Perth. 
Bal-la-wa-ra, Aborigines to the north of Perth. 
As several specimens of this animal, contained in a collection lately received from Western Australia, offer 
on comparison no difference whatever from others procured in South Australia and New South Wales, 
it is evident that the Brush-tailed Phascogale has an unusually wide range of habitat. It probably does 
not extend so far south as the island of Van Diemen’s Land, or northward of the twenty-fifth degree of 
south latitude. 
The plain and the mountain districts appear to he etpially inhabited by it, and from its destructive pro- 
pensities is I fear likely to become a pest to the colonists. It has already been known to enter the stores 
of the settlers and commit severe depredations whenever they contained anything suited to its palate, and, 
whether justly or not I am unable to say, it has also been charged with killing the fowls and chickens 
of the hen-roost. In the stomachs of some that were dissected were found the remains of coleopterous 
insects, and what appeared to be a species of fungus. Nocturnal in its habits, it sleeps during the day in 
the hollows of decayed trees, from which retreat it emerges on the approach of evening, when it ascends 
the trees and displays the greatest activity among the branches. When captured it becomes quite ferocious 
and struggles hard to effect its escape, and so severe are the lacerations it inflicts, that even a native can 
rarely be induced to put his hand within reach of a living one. It breeds in the hollows of the gum-trees, 
but the precise number of its young has not yet been ascertained. The sexes differ but little in size and 
colour, but the male is somewhat the largest. The accompanying Plate represents the animal of the size 
it is when fully adult. It is necessary to mention this, because much difference exists in the relative size of 
specimens sent to this country, many individuals that I have seen not being more than half the size of those 
figured, and which is solely attributable to the youthful state of the animal, and not to a difference of 
species. It was first figured in White’s “Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales,” a work published in 
1790, under the name Tapoa-tafa ; the specimen there represented is still preserved in the Museum of the 
Royal College of Surgeons, so that we have the clearest evidence of its identity with the animal here 
figured. 
The colouring of the Brush-tailed Phascogale may be thus described : — 
Face, all the upper surface and the base of the tail grey ; chin, throat, inside of the legs and feet 
greyish white ; a darker grey mark commences at the tip of the nose and extends over the forehead 
to the nape ; the fur is moderately long and loose, that which covers the back and upper surface being 
uniform blue-grey next the body, and grizzled grey and brown towards the surface ; lengthened black- 
hairs are also thinly scattered among the fur of the upper surface ; the tail for about four-fifths of its 
length from the tip is clothed with long and stiff hairs of the finest black, giving that organ a brush-like 
appearance, whence its specific name ; tip of the nose flesh-colour ; ears purplish, very thinly covered with 
fine hairs. 
The figures represent the two sexes of the size they attain when fully adult. 
