220 
MACROPODID/K. 
The present species was first described by Hunter, under 
the name Potoroo, or Kangaroo-Rat, in the Appendix to 
White’s Journal, and from the description, and somewhat rude 
figure there given, it would have been difficult to determine 
which of the numerous species of Rat-Kangaroos since dis* 
covered, the Potoroo of White should he referred to, were it 
not that the skull of that animal is still preserved in the 
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. By the aid of that 
skull we are enabled clearly to identify the Potoroo of White’s 
Journal, (upon which Shaw founds his Macropm minor ,) 1 
with the Hypsiprymnus murium, of Pander and D’AIton, 2 
and with the H. Par on of Quoy and Gaimard, founded upon 
a skull contained in the Paris Museum, of which Professor 
Owen has been so kind as to lend me a drawing. 
Mr. Ogilby states that the animal to which he has given 
the name of H. sefosus is known in the colony of New South 
Wales by the native name “ Bettongand this remark no 
doubt has reference to the Rat-Kangaroo, so labelled in the 
collectiou of the Linnean Society, wliich specimens not only 
agree with Air. Ogilby *s description, but also with the animal 
I identify with the Macropus minor , of Shaw*. 
The animal described by Mr. Ogilby under the mime 
Hypsiprymnus myosums , agrees so perfectly with the H. 
murinus in every i*espect excepting certain differences ob¬ 
servable in the skull, that I cannot think those differences 
are specific. Tt is supposed to have been brought from 
1 It is evident that Shaw's account of the Macropun minor is chiefly taken 
from Hunter’s description of the Potoroo, though he likewise refers to the 
Kangaroo-Rat of Phillip’s Voyage in that account. The specific name minor 
is, now that the animal is placed in the genus Hypsiprymnus , particularly in¬ 
appropriate, there being other Hypsiprymni of smaller size, and scarcely any 
which arc of superior bulk to the II. minor. It would be well to adopt in 
its stead the next oldest specific name of murinus. 
2 Skdete dcr Bcutelthierc. 
