LAGORCHESTES LEICHARDTI, Gould.
Leichardt's Hare Kangaroo.
Two specimens—one adult, the other immature—of this beautiful species of Laqorchestes have been transmitted to me by direction of the Council of the Australian Museum at Sydney, New South Wales, for the purpose of being described and figured in the present work. The specimens in question formed part of the Mammalia collected by Dr. Leichardt during his extensive overland journey from Moreton Bay to Port Essington; unfortunately no information has been furnished me respecting them; perhaps, indeed, none was obtained. I am, therefore, unable to state the precise locality in which they were procured; but as I find no mention of them in the late Mr. Gilbert's Journal, we may infer that they were not obtained until after his lamented death, and that the country between the Gulf of Carpentaria and Port Essington is the natural habitat of the species. I have named it Leichardti, from a desire to assist in perpetuating the name of the intrepid traveller who has done so much in the exploration of Australia, and whose life it is to be feared has fallen a sacrifice to his zeal for discovery in the previously untraversed portions of that strange country.
The only species with which the L. Leichardti could be confounded is the L. conspicillatus, but on comparison it will be found to differ from that animal in the richly contrasted colouring of its crisp and wiry fur, in the whiteness of its rump and tail, in the brighter rusty hue of the space surrounding the eye, in the chestnut colour of the basal portion of the fur, and in its smaller ears.
I cannot conclude without offering my thanks to the Council of the Australian Museum for their kindness and liberality in permitting this rare and interesting animal to be sent to Europe, the discovery of which adds so much to the interest of "The Mammals of Australia."
Face grizzled grey and brown, passing into rufous between and on the ears, which are margined with white; around the eye a conspicuous oval patch of lively ferruginous red; hairs of the cheeks stiff and bristly; all the upper surface mottled rufous black and white, the base of the fur being chestnut, passing into black about the middle, then into white, and lastly into dark rufous at the tip; on the rump and base of the tail these colours give place to greyish white, intermingled with black; all the under surface greyish white; at the insertion of the hinder limbs two curved marks of grey; hands and toes washed with buff; nails black; tall greyish white.
Total length from the nose to the extremity of the tail two feet four inches; of the tail thirteen inches; of the tarsus and toes including the nail five inches and three-quarters; of the arm and hand including the nail three inches; of the face from the tip of the nose to the base of the ear two inches and five-eighths; of the ear one inch and an eighth.
The figure is rather under the size of life.
