1G2 
MACROPOD IDiE. 
MACROPUS (Halmaturus) BRACHYURUS. 
Short-tailed Kangaroo. 
Kangurus hr achy unis. Quoy et Gaimard. Voyage del’Astrolabe, 
Zoologie, tom. i. p. 114, Plate 19. 
Halmaturus ( Thylogale 1 ) brevicaudatus. Gra y, Catalogue of the Mammalia 
in the British Museum. 
About equal in size to the Common Rabbit. Ears short and 
rounded, and rather densely clothed internally with rusty 
yellow hairs : fore feet proportionately rather large ; hind feet 
short ; both anterior and posterior extremities of a darkish 
brown colour : tail short and slender, and sparingly clothed 
with small hairs, which do not hide the scales: fur long, 
somewhat glossy, and soft; its general tint, on upper parts 
of bodj’, brown, and on under parts, whitish, but suffused 
with yellow : on the head is a slight rusty tint, especially in 
the region of the ears. 
Inhabits the region of King George’s Sound. 
This species is remarkable in its group for its short and 
comparatively slender tail, which is not more than about an 
inch and a half in circumference at the base, and resembles 
1 III the Magaziue of Natural History, vol. i. (New Series), p. 583, Mr. 
Gray separates, as the type of a sub-genus of Halmaturus , the 3/. Thetidit 
(supposed at that time to be the 3/. Eugenii ), and gives as the characters of 
the section, “ the hinder fold of the hinder upper cutting tooth scarcely 
larger than the front one, so that the tooth appears only notched behind t 
front incisor short , simple To this sub-genus the name Thylogale is 
applied ; and, in the List ot the Mammnlia in the British Museum, the present 
animal (3/. brachyurus) is associated with 3/. Thelidis, as a second species of 
1 hylogale. This .section 1 cannot adopt, because it is founded upon character* 
which are too variable in nearly allied species of Kangaroos to be of impor¬ 
tance ; and the two species which are associated together arc by no means 
nearly related, if we nmy judge from the structure of the skull and extremities; 
nor do they even agree in the structure of the incisor teeth—compare fig. 16a 
of Plate 5 with tig. 2 c of Plate 3 ; and, beyond these objections, I may add, 
that the species selected as the type of the section Thylogale , must, in fact, be 
regarded as the type of the section Halmaturus , ns defined by F. Cuvier. 
