Page:The mammals of Australia Gould vol 1.djvu/104

 the synonymy of this animal than Mr. Waterhouse; it will be but fair, therefore, to give his remarks on the subject:—

"The Short-nosed Perameles has an unusually wide range, being found in New South Wales, South Australia, King George's Sound, the Swan River district, and Van Diemen's Land. I have examined specimens from each of these localities, and taken much pains to satisfy myself of their specific identity. The males I have usually found larger than the females; their fore-feet are proportionately larger, and so are the canine teeth. The colouring varies somewhat in different individuals, and is darker than that of other species, if we except P. macroura."

The Perameles affinis of Dr. Gray "is founded upon a small animal from Van Diemen's Land, which appears to me to be a young individual of 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 appearance of an adult animal in the character of the fur, &c., that I supposed, like Dr. Gray, there really existed a second species resembling P. obesula; but after examining the skulls, removed from two such specimens, I was convinced that their small size merely indicated immaturity."

Of the Perameles fusciventer of Dr. Gray, Mr. Waterhouse remarks, "Two specimens in the British Museum are labelled Perameles fusciventer; one agrees in every respect with the P. obesula, excepting that its head is rather shorter. . . . . 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. I question much whether the shortness of the head in the larger specimen does not arise from the mode in which the specimen has been stuffed; and with regard to the yellowish tint of the abdomen, I may observe, that in specimens which are undoubtedly the P. obesula, the under parts of the body are sometimes tinted with yellow, though less strongly than in the little animal above described. I cannot see any good grounds for regarding the specimens called fusciventer as specifically distinct from the P. obesula."

The animal here represented is one of the very commonest of the Australian mammals, and is, moreover, one of the oldest known, having been figured and described in some of the earliest works on that country.

The hairs composing the fur of this animal are of two kinds: all that are visible are harsh to the touch, flattened, pointed and glossy: upon dividing these coarse hairs, a soft, somewhat scanty fur becomes visible: on the upper parts of the body the coarse hairs are greyish-white at the root, black at the point, and broadly annulated in the middle with ochreous-brown, giving the whole the appearance of being pencilled in about equal proportions with black and ochreous-brown; the under-fur is grey; on the under parts of the body the hairs are yellowish-white at the tip and white at the base, and the under-fur is also white: towards the end of the muzzle the hairs are of a uniform dusky-brown; the lips, chin and throat are whitish; hairs clothing the inner side of the ears yellowish, becoming brownish on the margin; on the outer side dusky, becoming paler on the posterior part, and there is a faint indication of a pale spot at the base, near the anterior margin; fore-feet whitish; tarsi dirty-white, tinged with yellowish, and freckled with black on the upper surface; on the inner side they are delicate yellow; hairs of the base of the tail similar to those of the body; beyond this the upper surface is dusky, and of a dirty yellowish tint on the under surface.

The figures are somewhat less than the size of life.