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LAGORCHESTES HIRSU

Rufous Hare Kangaroo.

TUS, Gould.

Lagorchestes hirsutus, Gould in Proce. of Zool. oc. 1844, p. 32.

Macropus (Lagorchestes) hirsutus, Waterh. Nat. Hist. of Mamm. vol. i. p. 92

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Aut the examples I have seen of this Species, some of which are at the British

Museum, and the remainder
in my own collection, have been procured in Western Australi

a, whence they were sent to this country by

| | scvatus, I should suppose that the present animal
would weigh about four or six pounds, the weight of a moder

Mr. Gilbert ; judging from the size of Lagorchestes fa

rate-sized hare. The lengthened shagey
over the lower part of the back, anc
the base of the tail, at once distinguish it from all the other

reddish hairs, which are abundantly distributed | particularly near
2) C c 3G te

members of the genus. The only note trans-
mitted by Mr. Gilbert, respecting the habits of the species, is as follows :-—
“Tt has a hairy muzzle: in its habits it assimilates in an equal degree to those of the B

ettongie and the
Lagorchesti. It constructs a burrow, open at both end

s, with a seat at the side of the entrance, from

which it plunges into the burrow the instant it is alarmed. It feeds on the Open country adjacent to the

thickets, where there is a low thick scrub about two feet high: when running, and particularly when
hunted, it utters a singular note, resembling the syllable ting rather quickly repeated. Some slight
difference is found to exist in specimens from various localities, which I presume must be regarded as due
to the difference of situation, and nothing more.” He adds, that it is called ¥00-rup by the Aborigines of
the interior of Western Australia, who appear to give the name of Jr-da to the animal during the period
of immaturity ; at all events, the young example sent by him with that name attached to it, is undoubtedly
the young of the present species. Both the adult and the young were procured in the Walyemara
district.

Mr. Waterhouse having given a very accurate description of this animal from the specimens in the British
Museum, I take the liberty of transcribing it :—

“The fur is long and moderately soft; the upper parts of the body grey, much tinted with rufous brown
and freely pencilled with white; the sides of the body, rump, hind- and fore-legs are of a bright rust-red,
deepest on the hinder and palest on the fore-legs; the throat, chest and mesial line of the belly rusty white ;
crown of the head grey; a broad space around the eye 1s of a bright, but palish rust-red, which tint extends
on to the muzzle; a whitish line on the upper lip runs back past the angle of the mouth; ear clothed inter-
nally with somewhat lengthened white hairs, externally they are pencilled with rusty yellow and dusky, Une
former being, however, the prevailing tint; the hinder half is almost entirely clothed went sual white hairs ;
the fore-feet are clothed with glistening yellowish white hairs; the tarsus is almost ee of a pale rusty
red, but is of a rusty white towards the hinder part, and the toes are obscurely Sulusee with brownish
rust-red ; the tail is ‘clothed throughout with short, stiff, adpressed hairs, scarcely hiding tlhe scaly ee
they are finely pencilled with black and rust-red at the base of the tail, but on the upper a a pe
an uniform brownish black tint, which is continued to the point; on the mae surface ie ; e a i
pale rust-red, and towards the apex is a naked scaly space of about an inch in eae oo a s oe ae :
ca . erable: mont f each hair is of a brownish rust-red; near the
18 nearly black next the skin, but a considerable portion o ae

: : : : a aes ‘nt they are dusky or black; on the belly the
point the hairs are broadly annulated with white, and at the poin y )
fur is ashy grey next the skin.”

The figure is rather less than the natural size.

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