8 
ON SOME KANGAROOS AND BANDICOOTS 
FROM BARROW ISLAND, N.W. AUS- 
TRALIA & ADJOINING MAINLAND. 
By OLDFIELD THOMAS , [Nov Hates 7,oologicce , Vol. VIII . , /go/). 
In connection with the determination of some Kangaroos from 
North-Western Australia sent home some time ago by Mr. B. H. 
Woodward of the W.A. Museum, a question arose as to the characters 
of the Kangaroo described by Gould as Macropus isabellinus , on an 
imperfect skin from Barrow Island, off the north western coast of 
Australia. That skin, preserved in the British Museum, had remained 
unique up to the present time, and therefore Mr. Woodward, with 
great enterprise, got up, last year, an expedition to Barrow Island in 
order to obtain topotypes of this little-known animal. His collector, 
Mr. Tunney, was successful in obtaining a number of specimens, besides 
examples of Lagorchestes conspicillatus (Gould), and of the Bandicoot 
described below. A series of these species has been generously 
given to the National Museum by the authorities of the W.A. Museum. 
The head is without any of the characteristic markings of M. rufus , 
and the skull shows all the structural characters of M. robustus , but is 
much smaller, as might have been expected from the insular habitat of 
the animal. It is also noticeably stouter and more heavily built. The 
hind feet are remarkably short, measuring only 250 mm. in an old 
male. The tips of the ears behind are brown or blackish, those of all 
the related continental forms being reddish or sandy, like the rest of 
the head. 
Further details on this subject are to be found in a paper which 
Mr. Waite has recently written on a specimen in the Sydney Museum, 
collected by Mr. Tunney, and also received from the W.A. Museum. 
The more accurate hnowledge now, therefore, available about 
M. isabellinus enables me to give an opinion about some other N.W. 
Australian Kangaroos received previously from Mr. Woodward. 
These are — firstly, a set of four, two males and two females, from 
Yalgoo, Murchison District, Western Australia. The females are the 
specimens on which my Macropus robustus cervinus was founded, the 
males, owing to an error in labelling, having been thought to be 
M. rufus , of which specimens were sent home at the same time. For 
these males the name cervinus is, unfortunately, not very suitable, as 
they are of a deep rich rufous, similar to, but richer than the ground 
color of M. isabellinus . The head is of the same color as the back, 
