PLAIN RAT-KANGAROO. 
220 
sions fti*e given is from an old male, and has the temporal 
ridges very distinct. 
Sub-genus 0, Potoroiis. 
Potoro'uM. Desmarest, Nouv. Diet. d’llist. Nat. tom. xxviii. p. 70. 1819. 
** 11 Mammalogic, Part 1, p. 271. 1820. 
Hypsiprymnus. Illigbr, Prod. Syst. Mamm. ct Avium, p. 79. 1811. 1 
Head elongated; tarsi short; tail sparingly clothed with short 
stiff hairs, and exhibiting a scaly skin : muffle naked. 
1 Of the names Potoroiis and Hypsiprymnus, applied in a generic sense, the 
former by Desmarest, and the Utter by llliger, to the animal called die Kan¬ 
garoo-Rat, in White's Journal, that given by Desmarest (which is formed 
from the native name Potoroo) was undoubtedly the first proposed, since it is 
quoted by llliger in his Prodromus, where he first defines the genus Hypsi- 
prytHttu*. I am not aware, however, whether the section was characterised in 
the first edition of the Nouveau Dictionnairc d’Histoire Naturelle, in which, 
according to Desmarest, the name Potoroiis first occurs, not having been able 
to obtain a sight of that edition. In the second edition of this work, where 
Desmarest points out die peculiarities of his genus, he complains of llliger ’s 
having substituted a new name for the one he had previously proposed. It is 
clear diat the definitions of both authors are founded upon the account in 
White’s Journal, and apply to the animal hereafter described under the uaino 
Hypsiprymntts murtnut , an animal which is apparently distinct from the 
Kangaroo* Rat of Governor Phillip’s work, though regarded by Desmarest, and 
many other authors, as specifically identical with White’s Kangaroo- Rat. 
Since Illiger’s classical name has been very generally ndopted for the whole Rat 
Kangaroo group, and “ has well taken root,” I have thought it desirable to 
retain the term Hypsiprymnus (it has reference to the animal having the 
hinder part of the hack much raised, when the fore feet arc applied to the 
ground, being compounded of the Greek words, ityoy and vpvpva^) in the same 
sense, that is, for the genus, and to use Desmarest’s name Potoroiis, for the 
minor section or sub-genus, of which his Potorous murinus is the type. We 
cannot conveniently, it maybe observed, use either of the names for the t chole, 
and at the same time for part of the Rat-Kangaroo section. 
