MUS GOULDI, Waterh.
White-footed Mouse.
Mus Gouldii, Waterh. Zool. of Voy. of Beagle, Mamm., p.. pl. 32. fig. 18, teeth.—Greyii, Gray, List of Mamm. in Coll. Brit. Mus., p. 111.
—— Greyii, Gray in Grey's Journ. of Discoveries in Australia, App. vol. ii. p. 410.
Kurn-dyne, Aborigines of the neighbourhood of Moore's River, in the interior of Western Australia.
The Mus Gouldi is a very distinct and well-marked species, of a size intermediate between that of a Rat and a common Mouse, and may be at all times distinguished by its lengthened, slender, and, white hind feet. It evinces a preference for the plains and sand-hills of the interior, and, as I have seen specimens from the Liverpool Plains, from South Australia, and from the neighbourhood of Moore's River, in Western Australia, appears to range across the southern part of the continent from east to west. The original example from which Mr. Waterhouse took his description was probably from Mr. Coxen's collection, made either on the Upper Hunter or on the interior side of the Liverpool range. Two others transmitted by Mr. Strange were said to have been found between the River Courong and Lake Albert, "and to make their burrows under bushes." Mr. Gilbert states that in Western Australia the animal inhabits the sides of grassy hills where the soil is loose; that its burrows, which are constructed about six inches below the surface, are often of great extent, and that it is generally found in small families of from four to eight in number, inhabiting the same burrow, and even the same nest of dried soft grasses.
Fur soft; general hue buffy-brown, interspersed on the head, upper surface and sides, but particularly on the back, with numerous somewhat longer black hairs; under surface pale buffy-white, washed with a deeper tint of buff on the cheeks and lower portion of the sides; whiskers black; hands and feet white; tail brown above, paler beneath.
The figures are of the natural size.
