190 
MACUOrODID/E. 
The Rat-Kangaroo 1 may be subdivided into three minor 
groups, two of which have received names; the third contains 
the Bettongia r ufe see ns of Mr. Gray, which I shall proceed 
to describe. 
Section , or Sub-Getius, 1. 
Muffle almost entirely clothed with liair; bony palate without 
posterior openings ; tarsus long. 
HYPSIPRYMNUS (Sect 1) RUFESCENS. 
The Rufous Rat- Kangaroo. 
Bettongia rvfetcens. Gray, Magazine of Natural History for Nov. 1837, 
vol. i. p. 584. 
Hyp&iprymnus melanotis. Gould, Mouogr. Part 2. 
,, ,, Ogilby, Proceedings of the Zool. Soc. for May, 
1838, p. 02. 
Fur moderately long and soft, the interspersed harsher hairs long: 
general tint bright rusty red, but much pencilled with 
whitish ; under parts impure white ; ears with white hairs 
internally, excepting at the margin, where they are rusty 
red; externally, densely clothed with soft black hairs; fore 
legs and feet white, or nearly so; tarsi dusky brown : tail 
moderately well clothed, the hairs adpressed, and tolerably 
long on the apical portion ; of a dirty white colour, but 
rather finely pencilled with dusky on the upper surface at 
and near the base : muffle clothed with small hairs, but with 
a narrow naked space next the nostril openings.—Skull, 
Plate 10, fig. 1. 
Inhabits New South Wales. 
1 The animals in question are usually called Kangaroo - Rats; but as they 
belong to the Kangaroo group, and not to the Rat tribe, I think all will agree 
in the propriety of the above alteration of the relative position of the 
two terms. 
