20 
HORN EXPEDITION—MAMMALIA. 
Unfortunately the foot-pads vv^ere not recorded by Mr. Krefft. 
The black crest typical of the tail of Ph. cristicaiida was present, but differed 
from that described by Krefft in being developed on the ventral as well as on the 
dorsal surface. 
The peculiarity of the dentition, the crested tail, and the general measure¬ 
ments of the body led me to refer the animal to Krefft’s species. 
INIr. J. J. Fletcher very kindly, in response to my request, inspected and sent 
me a description of the t\pe specimen, and subsequently, through the courtesy of 
Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., the curator of the Sydney Museum, to whose kindness I 
am much indebted, I had the opportunity of examining the specimen itself. 
Unfortunately, as Krefft stated, the original, which came from “South Aus¬ 
tralia, probably the neighbourhood of Lake Alexandrina,”* was in a bad state of 
preservation when i*eceived. Very little could be made of it as a mounted 
sp(;cimcn, and the taxidermist of that time (as Mr. Etheridge is also of opinion) 
evidently endeavoured to make amends for the lack of fur by inserting patches 
borrowed from some other beast of as nearly as possible the same colour and 
textui-e, but the result is not a success. There is, however, enough of the original 
fur and animal remaining to show that the figuref given by Krefft is exceedingly 
unsatisfactory. 
The mounted specimen is nothing like so rufous in colour as the drawing 
represents, and has, moreover, a distinctly lighter under-surface. To replace the 
lost fur the taxidermist chose a more mouse-coloured one. In the plate 
(presumably drawn from the specimen or from notes provided by Mr. Krefft) the 
head is shown as flattened after the manner of a Phascologale; in the stuffed 
specimen it is distinctly rounded. The ear in the figure is too small. The tail of 
the mounted specimen is much more swollen out at the base than is represented in 
the figure, and has the appearance of being incrassate during life.J The most 
curious feature in regard to the tail, however, is the presence of black hairs forming 
a crest (they are matted together, but can be clearly seen) on the under-surface of 
the tip. These are neither mentioned in the description nor drawn in the figure, 
where the tail is most inaccurately represented, both in regard to the crest and 
general shape. 
* Krefit: “ Maniinals of Australia.” The pagination of this volume is irregular, and so cannot be referred to. 
t P.Z.S., 1866, pi. 36. 
t The original description and the figure given in the P.Z.S., 1866, differ somewhat from the description given 
by Krefft in his “ Mammals of Australia.” In the latter he says—“ Tail thick, with compressed sides, ornamented 
by a crest of hair on the .apical half, similar to the tail of the pig-footed b.andicoot.” It can only be said, in reference 
to this, that neither m the figure nor in the actual specimen itself is the tail like that of Chocropus castanotis. 
