Page:The mammals of Australia Gould vol 2.djvu/203

 Gould.

Little Rock Wallaby.

Petrogale concinna, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part x. p. 57.—Gray, List of Mamm. in Coll. Brit. Mus., p. 92.

Macropus (Heteropus) concinnus, Waterh. Nat. Hist, of Mamm., vol. i. p. 177.

parts of Australia are even yet almost unknown both to travellers and naturalists; particularly the countries bordering its northern and north-western coasts—not to mention the distant interior; and in all these parts, numerous new species of quadrupeds, birds, and other classes of natural history are in my opinion to be discovered. The north-west coast has, it is true, been visited by the officers of H.M. Surveying Ship Beagle, and such species as fell in their way have been collected by them, but their official duties prevented them from giving that attention to the subject that could be desired. Nearly all they did collect proved to be new to science. The present interesting Little Rock Wallaby may be cited as a case in point, having been one of the specimens thus procured and brought home by Lieut. Emery, R.N. The single specimen obtained by this gentleman, and which is now in the British Museum, is fully adult, and is remarkable for its brilliant colouring and diminutive size. Mr. Waterhouse remark, that "it may be readily distinguished from its congeners, not only by its small size and bright, colouring, hut by the absence of any black spot behind the base of the fore-leg."

Fur moderately long and somewhat soft to the touch; general colour bright rusty-red; head palish ash-colour, slightly suffused with rust-colour, which tint is most conspicuous above the eyes; cheeks rusty-white, with an indistinct greyish-brown mark extending forwards from the front of the eye; ears very pale brown externally, and lined with a few white hairs internally; fur on the back grey next the skin, and this tint at the root of each hair is followed by brilliant rusty-red, then a broad space which is white, and lastly, the tip is deep rusty-brown; on the under parts of the body the fur is grey next the skin, and yellowish-white on the visible portion; fore-legs rusty-white; hands brownish-white; hind-legs pale rust-colour externally; tarsi brownish-white, slightly pencilled with brown; on the hack of the neck an indistinct trace of a mesial darker mark; tail clothed at the base with fur like that of the body; beyond this the hairs are of a harsher nature, at first about half an inch in length, and on the apical third about an inch and a half, of a brownish-white, tipped with black.

The accompanying Plate represents the animal about the natural size.