Historical Papers
Krefft, G. 1876. Notes on Australian animals in New Guinea with description of a new freshwater tortoise belonging to the genus Euchelymys. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale de Genova. 1:390-394.
Even in this case I should prefer to find that the tortoise in question would prove identical with Euchelymys sulcifera (Gray) than that it would be accepted as a real new species –– but this doubtfulness cannot be decided till more specimens come to hand. The genus Euchelymys was established by D.r J. E. Gray in 1871. Euchelymys (part.) Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1871, VIII, pag. 118. The definition of the genus given in the Zool. Soc. Proceedings for 1872, p. 508, corresponds with the specimen under discussion and the specific characters differ but slightly from D.r Gray’s example obtained by the late M.r Stutchbury in 1856 from north Australia. –– The • white streak • mentioned by D.r Gray extending from the angle of the mouth to beneath the ear is orange in D’Albertis’s specimen and with the experience I have had with the reptiles of the Australian Region I could easily trace the scarlet markings on the now uniform yellow sternal plate.
I regret very much that I have not had an opportunity to obtain a look at the many new species of snakes and frogs Signor D’Albertis obtained at New Guinea because a good many of our ordinary species are (of course more or less modified) represented in the big island. I only mention the highly variable Lead-coloured snake (Diemenia superciliosa) known under a dozen different names in various stages of growth. –– The Death Adder (Acantophis antarctica) smaller in size –– but as D.r Gunther himself thinks, identical with ours. The Black snake (Pseudechys porphyriacus) and its brown orange bellied variety. –– A Green Treesnake (Dendrophis punctulata) and a brown one (Dipsas fusca) differing but little from ordinary australian species –– The Treesnakes extend as far as the Solomons Group. Of frogs we have to mention Pelodryas coeruleus the ordinary big Green Tree Frog who announces the coming rain from its sheltered hiding place in Australian dwelling houses up country. A variety of the fern-loving Hyla phyllochroa, a species of Platymantis and the mouse-eating Chiroleptes australis (?) as occuring in New Guinea. Of higher vertebrata we find Antechini, Phascogales, Dactylopsilas and other small australian insectivorous forms well represented on the other side of Torres straits, not to mention the • Bandicoots • and ordinary Wallabies, which as far as their dentition is concerned differ in nothing from the great Genus Halmaturus whereof H. walabatus is the best known representative. Some years ago I paid special attention to the Wallabies of this country and after the examination of many thousand skulls I arrived at the conclusion that such species as Halmaturus walabatus, H. mastersi, H. bennettii and H. dorsalis differ little from one another. Without referring to my Manuscript on the subject (to which I have at present no access) it would of course be impossible to go fully into the matter; but as M.r D’Albertis has informed me that ordinary Wallabies not of the genus Dorcopsis exist in New Guinea and as he was kind enough to leave with me a lower jaw which cannot be distinguished from the many varieties of the ordinary Black Wallaby, I beg to state my conviction that this New Guinea representative is a true australian form. I have not even a specimen of a Wallaby skull nor a book in which one is figured at hand, but the shape of the ordinary Black Wallaby’s jaw is so deeply impressed upon my mind, that I submit a sketch of D.r D’Albertis discovery for examination, believing that it will be found very much like it.
Naturalists will agree with me at all events that the form is Australian and belongs to the ordinary Halmaturus kind. The variation of the common Black Wallaby, the manner in which the species interbreed and the way in which they adapt themselves to change of climate is not so well understood abroad as it is in this country. –– Halmaturus walabatus has a wide range, inhabits chiefly the scrub of the coast district and in the southern part it is of a rather dark colour with long fur. Near the borders of Queensland it is considerable lighter and on the Burnett River (which is inhabited by fresh water tortoises of the genus Euchelymys, and by the Ceratodus Forsteri (Krefft)) has assumed a greyish and much thinner fur in consequence of which variation it has been described by me some years ago as Halmaturus Mastersi. I find however that it is but a variety of the true Black Wallaby of the south. It is not impossible therefore that the newly discovered New Guinea Wallaby may prove to be allied to this form, skins of which I believe have been dispatched by M. D’Albertis to Italy for examination.1
As signor D’Albertis has carefully observed the birds found on the Banks of the Fly River during his last trip in the • Ellangowan • he will probably supplement these few remarks with an account of his own observations.
Sydney February 17 1876.
(1) É glá noto come il grande invio di D’Albertis, frutto di un anno di assiduo lavoro all’ Isola Yule e sulla costa vicina della N. Guinea, sia andato smarrito in un’ avaria toccata al vapore che to transportava da Somerset a Batavia; tale irreparabile infortunio accadde presso l’Isola di Flores. In un precedente invio il D’Albertis aveva giá fatto pervenire al Museo Givico una pelle con cranio di un giovane Macropus che fu descritto nel Vol. VII, pag. 544 di questi stessi Annali col nome di M. papuanus. Questo individuo sará figurato in un prossimo Vol. di questa pubblicazione. Esso appartiene senza dubbio alla stessa specie di cui tratta il Signor G. Krefft nella presente comunicazione e della quale egli spedi uno schizzo del mascellare inferiore, che essendo incompleto, non fu riprodotto. G. DORIA.
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