Page:The mammals of Australia Gould vol 1.djvu/239

 Gould.

Large-tailed Podabrus.

Podabrus macrourus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIII. p. 79.

Phascogale (Antechinus) macroura, Waterh. Nat. Hist, of Mamm., vol. i. p. 426.

that I have to record respecting this new and interesting little animal, is that several specimens were procured and sent to me, accompanied with the following remarks, by Mr. Gilbert, just prior to starting on his ill-fated expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington.

"This is an interesting species, inasmuch as it assimilates in the large size of its tail to the little thick-tailed species (P. crassicaudatus) of the western coast. I found it inhabiting clumps of grass on the open plains in pairs, but I am told by an intelligent native of the Namoi that he has frequently found as many as four or five in a nest beneath a large stone, or in a dead hollow log lying on the ground. It is the Toon-moo-ra-la-ga of the natives of the Namoi. All my specimens were obtained in the Darling Downs district. Like many others of the genus, the sexes differ very much in size; the size of the tail also varies much in different individuals, and was always very much smaller in the females."

The fur in this animal is very soft, and both on the upper and under parts of the body of a slate-grey colour next the skin; the general hue of the upper parts of the body is ashy grey, hut the fur is much pencilled with black; on the sides of the body there is but little of the black pencilling, and hence the general hue is paler; and on these parts, as well as on the sides of the head, is a faint yellow tint; the under parts of the body are white, very indistinctly suffused with yellow on the mesial portion of the abdomen; between the white of the under parts and the greyish hue of the sides of the body is a narrowish space which is of an almost uniform pale yellow hue, and the same tint is observed on the outer side of the legs; the feet are white, obscurely tinted with pale yellow; on the upper surface of the head is a mark, narrow on the muzzle, but becoming expanded behind, which is almost entirely black, and immediately around the eyes the hairs are also black. The ears are of moderate size, have the posterior margin nearly straight, and are clothed internally with small pale yellowish hairs, and externally with black hairs, excepting on the hinder part, where they are pale. The tail is very thick at the base, being about 3½ lines in diameter at this part, and becomes gradually slender to the apex; it is clothed throughout with very minute hairs, between which the scaly skin is visible; on the upper parts and sides of the tail the hairs are partly black and partly yellow, and on the under surface they are dirty white.

The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size.