NORTH AUSTRALIAN D AS YU R US. 
435 
This is the smallest species of the true Dasyures, being a 
trifle less than the D. Maugei or D. hallucatus With the 
latter animal it might be confounded, having, like it, a thumb 
to the hind foot; upon a close examination, however, I dis¬ 
covered several characters by which it may be easily distin¬ 
guished. It is of smaller size 1 than D. Geoffroyi , of a 
darker colour, the ears have the flesh of a paler colour, and they 
are clothed with pale hairs ; the longer hairs which cover the 
root of the ear outside are whitish ; the toes of the hind foot 
are longer, since I found them to be seven lines in length in 
hallucatus , and only in a specimen of Geoffroyi which 
was of the same sex, and of considerably larger size; and, 
lastly, I find the whole sole, both of fore and hind feet in 
D. Geoffroyi , covered with minute, but. distinct fleshy tubercles, 
(as is also the case in D. viverrinus ), whilst in D. hallucatus 
I could scarcely perceive a trace of tubercles, and the fleshy 
pads at the base of the toes, and elsewhere, on which the 
tubercles were most distinct in Geoffroyi , are covered with 
numerous oblique or transverse grooves. The pads, moreover, 
at the base of the toes, were much narrower, and propor¬ 
tionately longer. I was led to examine these parts upon 
finding similar little striae, on the pads of the feet of many 
of the Pkascogales. 
The following description v r as drawn up from a female 
specimen in Mr. Gould’s collection :— 
Upper parts of body dusky brown, inclining to black, but 
pretty freely pencilled with yellowish, and having numerous 
irregular, and moderate sized, white spots, which extend like¬ 
wise on the sides of the body ; on the crown of the head 
are a few very small white spots; the under parts of the 
body are white, but suffused with yellowish ; most distinctly so 
1 I have examined three specimens, and both sexes, of D. hallucatus , and 
many specimens of the J). Geoffroyi, also of both sexes. 
