Page:The mammals of Australia Gould vol 1.djvu/183

, Gould.

Handsome-tailed Phascogale.

Phascogale calura, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XII. p. 104.

All mammalogists who are acquainted with the Phascogale penicillata will observe that a great similarity in form exists between that animal and the one here represented, of which a single individual has lately been forwarded to me from Western Australia, and which I believe to be the only specimen yet transmitted to Europe. I am led to consider it one of the most interesting of the Australian mammals lately discovered, not only from its forming the second species of the genus as now restricted, but from the extreme elegance of its form and the chaste but diversified character of its markings. The rich rust-red of the basal half of the upper surface of the tail is a very unusual mark in animals of this order. Mr. Gilbert procured the specimen above-mentioned while staying at the Military Station on William's River, and he merely says: "For this new animal I was indebted to a domestic cat who had captured it in the night. The soldiers informed me that they had often met with it in the store-room of the Station, but they could give me no other information respecting it, except that specimens with much larger or more brushy tails were sometimes seen." The fact of its visiting the stores shows, that in habits and disposition it assimilates as closely to the P. penicillata as it does in form.

The fur is soft and moderately long; its general colour is ashy grey externally and grey next the skin; under surface of the body white, tinted with cream-colour, which becomes more distinct on the sides; eyes surrounded by a narrow ring of black; in front of the eye a blackish patch; ears sparingly clothed for the most part with very minute dusky hairs, but at the base, both externally and internally, are some long yellowish hairs; base of the tail for nearly half its length clothed with short hairs of a brilliant rusty red colour; on the apical half of the tail the hairs are long and black, as is also the under surface of the base to near the root.

The Plate represents the animal, which is now in the British Museum, of the natural size.