SUB-FOSSIL REMAINS FROM KING ISLAND. 
In consequence of the large series of remains secured since 
the original description was published it is necessary to alter the 
diagnosis then given : — 
Drom^eus minor. 
Size varying considerably, hut always much smaller than that of 
D. novce-hollanclioB : not exceeding that of D. peroni , but of more 
robust build. Tibio-tarsus rarely exceeding 330 mm., most usually 
from 270-320 mm. in greatest length. Tarso-metatarsus rarely 
exceeding 280 mm., most usually from 220-280 mm. in greatest 
length. Frontal region of skull decidedly dome-shaped. Length 
of skull from frontal suture to occiput not or only slightly exceed- 
ing 60 mm. Greatest width of skull not or only slightly ex- 
ceeding 55 mm. 
Habitat. King Island. Bass Strait. Now extinct, 
Phascolomys ursinus, Shaw. 
In a separate paper we deal at length with the question 
of the different species of Phascolomys, popularly known as 
Wombats, that have been recorded from Australia, Tasmania, and 
the Islands of Bass Strait. It will suffice to say here that the 
earliest known Wombat was secured on Clarke Island, in Bass 
Strait, and taken alive to Sydney in 1797. There is no record of 
the name of its discoverer.* After lingering in captivity for six 
weeks it died; and in August of that year Hunter, then Governor 
of New South Wales, sent the body together with a description of 
the animal to the Newcastle Philosophical Society, f In 1800 
Shaw| published a brief description of this animal under the name 
of Didelphys ursina. Up to this year, and indeed until at the 
earliest 1802, the only Wombat known in England was the one 
sent home by Hunter. Bass found his specimen on Cape Barren 
Island in 1799, but no description of this was published until 
1.802. 
'There can be no doubt whatever that all the early descriptions 
of Phascolomys were based upon specimens from the Islands of 
Bass Strait, and further still that without any adequate investiga- 
tion it was taken for granted that the Bass Strait Island species 
was identical with the Tasmanian. Our collection from the Bass 
Strait Islands includes eight skulls, thirty lower jaws, and two 
skins, and after a careful comparison of these with fourteen skulls 
from Tasmania, and a large number from Australia, we have 
come to the conclusion that the Bass Strait Island form is quite 
distinct from that of Victoria and Tasmania, and that as already 
* It is generally stated that the first Wombat taken to Sydney was captured by Bass, but 
this is not so. 
+ In Bewick’s “ History of Quadrupeds,” 4th edit. 1800, p. 225, Hunter’s letter is quoted 
in full, and a quaint figure of the animal, which is called “ The Wombach, is given, 
t “General Zoology ” i., pt. 2, p. 504. 
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