Mem. Nat. Mus. Vict., vnr, 1934. 
A REVISION OF THE AUSTRALIAN JERBOA MICE. 
C. W. Brazenor, National Museum. 
Plates V, VI, and VII. 
The following revision of Australian Jerboa Mice is based on 
detailed examination of 140 specimens in the National Museum, 
Melbourne, and 35 in the Western Australian Museum, Perth, 
for the loan of which I am indebted to Mr. L. Glauert, B.A. 
F.G.S., Curator. 
Identification of species is by no means simple since they 
closely resemble one another and published diagnostic descrip- 
tions are often inadequate. 
The skulls of all are strikingly similar, and some minor 
variations are certainly not constant specifically. 
For instance Oldfield Thomas (4) states that the meso- 
pterygoid fossa of cervinus is broadened in front, but according 
to Wood Jones (8) the mesial pterygoid processes of cervinus 
are “practically straight”: in the present series both shapes 
are found (see fig. 1). In describing fuscus, Wood Jones (8) 
Fig. 1. Variation of mesopterygoid fossae in N. cervinus (Gould). 
says “the skull differs from that of cervinus in possessing palatal 
foramina which do not extend backwards past the anterior edge 
of the first molar tooth. Eight skulls of cervinus were examined 
for this character ; in three the palatal foramina extend past 
the outer edge of M 1 , in three others they reach as far as this 
point, and in two they do not reach it. 
All available skulls of various species were arranged in 
sequence according to the width of the palatal foramina, from 
the most open to the most closed ; the result was a meaningless 
jumble. 
Such characters are therefore not reliable, and, though not 
without regret, they have been discarded in this paper. 
The angle of inclination of incisor teeth for any one species 
is also variable. Oldfield Thomas records this angle in his 
diagnoses of the various species as the “incisive index,” but he 
■ [ 74 ] 
