EXISTING SPECIES OF THE GENUS PHASCOLOMYS. 
The specimen sent to Newcastle by Governor Hunter in 1798 
belonged to this species, and it was to this that Shaw referred when 
he described the animal that he calls Didelphys ursina. At a later 
time other writers described the same species under other generic 
and specific names. In 1803, Geoffroy, ignorant of the fact that a 
specimen had been sent to England five years earlier, and briefly 
described by Shaw under the name of Didelphys ursina, proposed the 
generic name Phascolomys. The true designation of the wombat 
of the Bass Strait Islands is therefore Phascolomys ursinus, Shaw ; 
and the following names, all of which have at one time or another 
been applied to the Island species, are synonyms of the former 
Wombatus fossor, Desmarest (1803). 
Phascolomys wombat, Peron et Lesueur (1808). 
Amblotis fossor, Illiger (1811). 
Phascolomys fusca, Illiger (1811). 
Phascolomys vomhatus, Leach (1815). 
Phascolomys bassii, Lesson (1827). 
The question now arises as to the relationship of Phascolomys 
ursinus, the mainland species, and the Tasmanian species. There 
is no question as to the specific distinction of the hairy-nosed wom- 
bat, Phascolomys latifrons, of South Australia. The remaining main- 
land form, Phascolomys mitchdli, is closely allied to the Tasmanian 
form, which again, up to the present time, has been supposed to be 
identical with the Bass Strait Island species, that is Phascolomys 
ursinus. In the following tables we give the measurements of the 
skull, teeth series, Ac., of a series of Phascolomys from Bass Strait 
Islands, Tasmania, and Victoria, as well as a certain number of 
Phascolomys latifrons. 
Table 1.— Skull Measurements of Phascolomys from King and 
Deal Islands. 
Number of Specimen . . 
1 . 
Basal length 
130 
Greatest breadth 
100 
Nasal length 
55 
„ greatest breadth 
40 
„ least breadth . . 
11 
Interorbital breadth 
40 
Breadth between tips 
of postorbital pro- 
cesses 
4:0 
Constriction 
33 
Palate length 
84 
Diastema length 
29.5 
Palatine foramen 
9 
Basi-cranial axis 
42 
Basi-facial axis 
91 
Facial index 
216.5 
Length of tooth series 
45 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
132.5 
121 
99 
107 
103 
105 
54 
46 
51 
44 
39.5 
41 
15 
13 
12.5 
38 
47 
42 
41 
39 
48.5 
44.5 
42 
32 
36 
33.5 
34 
74 
81 
77 
27 
30 
26 
26.5 
8.5 
10 
7.5 
7.5 
45 
41 
81 
90 
83 
82 
200 
202.5 
40 
43 
42 
43 
Deal Island 
6. 
7. 
8. 
Specimens. 
Adult. Juv. 
105 
104 
105 
loA 82 
53 
53 
39.5 
39 30 
14 
13 9 
42 
43 
41 
41 
43 
46 
44 
42 
33 
36.5 
30.5 
36 
80 
77 59 
31 
25 18 
9 
5.5 6 
40 
. fO 
GO 
83 63 
44.5 
44.5 
4i.8 
43 35* 
L 49 ] 
3981.— ». 
