M U RI DyE. 
By EDGAR R. WAITE, F.L.S, Zoologist, A2istralian Museitni, 
Sydney. 
(Plates 25 and 2G.) 
The mice referred to in the present article were not, for the most part, 
obtained at the time the Expedition visited the McDonnell Ranges, but Professor 
Spencer, who has since worked over the same ground, collected quite a lai’ge 
number. These, together with sundry specimens since forwarded to him from 
the same districts, he kindly sent to me for the purpose of having some notice 
of them prepai'ed for publication in this volume. 
Occasion may first be taken to remark on the impossibility of satisfactorily 
determining the Miiridcr, of Australia from such meagre descriptions as at present 
do duty for many of the earlier-described species. Those furnished by Gould are 
of the very barest nature, and deal only with external characters. Such characters 
are in some cases quite insufhcient for the determination of species, and may even 
be useless in the case of genera. Mr. Oldfield Thomas has remarked of his 
Mastacomys fuscus that externally it is almost exactly similar to AIi^s velutinus, 
both Tasmanian species, so that an examination of the skull is needed to distinguish 
the two forms.* 
Even a cursory study shows that very little satisfactory work can be done at 
the Aluridce until many of the types, of which nearly all of Gould’s are in London, 
have been adequately re-described and their osteological chai’acters figured. Tlien 
again, with the exception of a very few types, there are here no authentic specimens 
available for comparison. Under these circumstances the writer has, very reluc¬ 
tantly, been compelled to give names to some of the species examined, at the 
possible risk of adding to the synonomy. He trusts, however, that the descriptions 
and figures given will be found sufficient to enable anyone undertaking a much- 
needed revision of the Australian Aluridce to recognise the .species described. 
Should the majority of them ultimately prove to be valid it will scai’cely be 
remarkable, inasmuch as they are from an almost unknown zoological region ; 
* c 
Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5), ix., 1882, p. 414. 
