170 
MACROPODID.E. 
MACROPUS (Heteropus) BRACHIOTIS. 
Sliort-eared Rock-Kangaroo. 
Macropus ( Petrogale) brachyotis. Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. for Oct. 1840, 
Pt. 8, p. 128 . Monogr. Pt. 1 , 6th Pi. 
Fur short, and rather closely applied to the body; general tint of 
upper parts, ashy brown, suffused with vinous or purplish 
rust colour ; sides of the body, pale vinous grey; under parts 
dirty yellowish white: head pale brown, exhibiting the usual 
whitish cheek mark ; the cheeks almost white ; occiput with 
an indistinct dusky line; cars short and pointed, with pale 
hairs internally ; externally dusky: a rusty black patch on 
the body immediately behind the base of the fore leg; fore 
feet brown; nails of the toes very short, and scarcely pro¬ 
jecting beyond the fleshy portion, which is extremely rough 
beneath: tail with the basal half grey; the apical half bushy, 
having still* black hairs, averaging about one inch in length. 
Inhabits the north-west coast of Australia. 
The specimens upon which Mr. Gould founded the Petro * 
gale irachiotis were presented to him by Capt. George Grey, 
Governor of South Australia, who procured them at Hanover 
Bay, on the north-west coast, while traversing that previously 
unexplored region. Capt. Grey observes, that it is a very 
wild and shy animal, frequenting, in the day time, the highest 
and most inaccessible rocks, and only coming down to the 
valleys to feed early in the morning, and late in the evening. 
When disturbed in the daytime it bounds among the roughest 
and most precipitous rocks, apparently with thegreatest facility, 
and is so watchful and wary that it is by no means easy to 
get a shot at it. The heat of the sand rocks, amongst which 
it is always found, is, it is stated, very great, amounting in the 
hottest part of the day sometimes to 13(1°. 
