ASH-COLOUKED PHASCOGALE. 
427 
gale crassicaudata. Like that animal it has the tail 
incrassated, a character which perhaps may he sexual, or even 
may not be constant in individuals of the same sex at different 
periods. Of the two specimens, one is decidedly a male, 
and this has the tail much incrassated; the other is ap¬ 
parently a female, and here the tail can scarcely he described 
as incrassated, though it is thicker than in the little slender- 
footed species, P. albipes, &e. Prom P. crassicaudata the 
present animal may he distinguished by its much larger size, 
the proportionately greater length of its tail, and its ashy- 
grey colouring, which presents no admixture of yellow, 
excepting on the sides of the body, where a delicate cream- 
coloured hand separates the white of the under parts from 
the grey of the upper. I have assured myself that the 
difference of size between this species and the P. crassicau¬ 
data is not dependent upon either a difference of age or sex, 
having seen adult specimens of both sexes of P. crassicau¬ 
data, and I have scarcely a doubt that the two specimens of 
P. macroura are of different sexes. 
Male. Female? 
Inches. Lines. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length from tip of r.ose to root of tail 
4 
2 
3 11 
“ of tail 
3 
3 
2 10 
44 from nose to ear ... ... 
1 
0 
Hi 
44 of ear.* 
5 
“ of hind foot and nails. 
8J 
In the male specimen the diameter 
of the tail is between 
three and four lines, near the base: from the middle it tapers 
rather suddenly to the apex. In the female the tail is rather 
more than two lines in diameter at the base. 
