Five new rats of the genera Hydromys and Melomys from northern Australia

Abstract

As a result of encouraging volunteer collect.ors by the provision of instructions and gear, and the personal efforts of Museum workers on the rare opportunities afforded for field work, the acquisition of indigenous mammals has shown a marked increase over the past fifteen years. New forms of marsupials, rodents, and bats are occasionally identified, and opportunities must be sought for the preparation of papers dealing with as many species as possible in order to close up the gaps and aid in working out the zoo-geographical relationships of the unique mammalian fauna. Of the five new forms described here, one species of Hydromys was collected by the author on Lawn Hill Creek, about 100 miles south of Burketown, which is in the Gulf country of north-western Queensland, while an interesting new Melomys was secured by a colleague, Mr. F. A. McNeill, when on vacation at Hayman Island in the Whitsunday Group on the north-eastern coast of that State. The submission of various kinds of mammals for identification regarding economic and health matters is another source of interesting material. In connection with the investigation of Weil's Disease in the cane fields of north Queensland, over a hundred specimens of rats have been submitted for examination by Sir Raphael Cilento, Director-General of Public Health in that State, and Professor Harvey Sutton of Sydney University, amongst which were five specimens of the previously little known Melomys littoralis, providing the extension of range noted below from the Cairns district 260 miles southward to Ayr. ... [etc.]