A hand-book to the marsupialia and monotremata (1896) (14591873170)

Identifier: handbooktomarsup00lydekk (find matches)
Title: A hand-book to the marsupialia and monotremata
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915
Subjects: Marsupials Monotremes
Publisher: London : E. Lloyd
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries



Text Appearing Before Image:
s. In habits the Bandicoots are fossorial and insectivorous,although many subsist on a mixed diet. THE RABBIT-BANDICOOTS. GENUS PERAGALE. Feragalea, Gray, in Greys Australia, Appendix, vol. ii., p. 401(1841). Form light and delicate; muzzle long and narrow; earsvery long; fore feet with the first and third toes rudimentaryand clawless, and the three middle ones long and furnishedwith strong curved claws ; no trace of the first toe (hallux) ofthe hind foot externally; hind limbs much longer than thefront pair; soles of hind feet hairy; tail long, and distinctlycrested on the upper surface of the terminal half. Five pairsof upper and three of lower incisor teeth ; molars quadrangu-lar or rounded in section, but differing markedly in structurein the two species of the genus. The Rabbit-Bandicoots are confined to Australia, exclusiveof Tasmania, and are omnivorous in their diet. I. COMMON RABBIT-BANDICOOT. PERAGALE LAGOTIS. Ferameles (Macrotis) lagotis, Reid, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1836, p.129.
Text Appearing After Image:
oq oo THE RABBIT-BANDICOOTS. 133 Perameles lagotis^ Waterhouse, Cat. Mamm. Mus. Zool. Soc, p. 65 (1838).Perameles (Peragahd) macrotis^ Gray, in Greys Australia, Appendix, vol. ii., p. 401 (1841).Feragale lagotis, Gray, List Mamm. Brit. Mus., p. 96 (1843); Thomas, Cat. Marsup. Brit. Mus., p. 223 (1888). (Plate XX.) Characters.—Size large; form light and delicate; fur verylong, soft, and silky. General colour fawn-grey; under-partswhite; cheeks and bases of ears white or pale fawn ; an in-distinct darker vertical band on the side of the rump. Earsnearly naked, their edges and the anterior part of the backsthinly clothed with brown hairs. Outer sides of the fore, andbacks of the hind limbs dark grey grizzled with white; elsewhereboth limbs white; soles of hind feet almost wholly covered withthick hair. Tail of moderate length, thickly haired throughout,the basal third coloured like the body, the middle third blackor dark brown, and the terminal moiety white and prominentlycrested above