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PETROGALE CONCINNA, 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., voi. i. p. 177.
Many 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 greyisli-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 back 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.