IIOKX EXPEDITION—^MAMMALIA. 
19 
Family Dasyurid^. 
Sub-family Dasyurinse. 
(1) Phascologale cristicauda, Krett’t. The crest-tailed Pliascologale. 
(Plate I., Figs, la, lb. Plate IV., Figs. 5, G, 7, 8). 
The exact determination of this species is a matter of considerable dilhculty. 
Through the kindness of Mr. Byrne I received some six adult and four immature 
specimens of what was apparently a species of Phascologale from Charlotte Waters, 
though at the same time it showed in the structure of the foot more the character 
of a Sminthopsis, rendering it a matter of some difficulty to which genus, as at 
present defined, it should be referred. All the specimens were females, half of 
them with young ones attached to the teats. On a subsequent visit to the same 
district I obtained, also through the kindness of Mr. Byrne, additional specimens, 
two of them being males. The latter are much less numerous than the females, 
and much more difficult to find. The blacks state that the male is never found in 
the same burrow with the female when the latter has young, but that they return 
later on. This may or may not be so, but blacks’ statements on matters of natural 
and other history must be accepted with reserve, as they are not devoid of 
imagination or at all incapable of inventing an ingenious excuse to account for 
failures of capture. 
All the specimens secured agreed fairly closely in size (that is, the adults) 
with the measurements given by Mr. Krefft for his single specimen of Chiclocerciis 
cristicauda. The dentition showed the peculiarity of the latter in that the lower 
was always absent, its position being indicated by a slight diastema. In 
addition, the upper p'^ is also absent in the great majority of specimens. In the 
young ones it is never or very rarely present; in the adult form it is at most 
tubercular in shape, and generally wanting or present on one side only. Appa¬ 
rently there is no milk premolar. Mr. KrefFt says : — “ The third and last premolar 
of the upper jaw is very diminutive and tubercular.”* 
In relative dimensions the hind feet may be regarded as intermediate between 
those of a typical Phascologale and Sminthopsis. The footpads of the hind feet 
differ from those characteristic of the former in that the five typical striated pads 
are wanting. At the base of the toes are three granulated elevations, much as, for 
example, in Sminthopsis murina., each bearing an unstriated pad formed by the 
coalescence of certain of the granulations, but of regular form. 
* “ Mammals of Australia.” 
