SHORT-NOSED PERAMELES. 
373 
Perameles affinis. Guay. 
Is founded upon a small animal from Van Diemen’s Land, 
which appears to me to be a young individual of the P. obesula: 
excepting in size I can perceive no difference : its length from 
the tip of the nose to the root of the tail is 8 inches. When of 
this size, the young P. obesula has so much the general'ap¬ 
pearance of an adult animal, in the character of the fur, &c., 
that I supposed, like Mr. Gray, there really existed a second 
species resembling the P. obesula , hut after seeing the skulls 
removed from two such specimens I was convinced that tlieii 
small size merely indicated immaturity : they wanted the two 
or three hack molar teeth. 
Perameles fusciven ier. Gray. 
Two specimens in the British Museum collection are 
labelled Perameles fusciventer ; one agrees in every respect 
with the P. obesula , excepting that its head is rather shorter: 
its dimensions are given in the sixth column of admeasure¬ 
ments in p. 370. The other is considerably smaller than the 
adult P. obesula , and differs in being more strongly pencilled 
with black on the upper parts of the body, and in having the 
under parts of the body of a pale brownish yellow, and the 
hairs on this part are slightly tinted with grey at the root. 
The head bears the same proportion to the body in length, as 
in P. obesula. Its dimensions are— 
Inches. Lines. 
Length from tip of nose to root to tail 
“ of tail 
“ from nose to ear 
“ of ear ... . 
“ of fore foot and nails 
“ of hind foot and nails 
9 0 
3 0 
2 2 
1 
