1 ' u *&r MAMMALS COLLECTED BY MR. SHAW MAYER IN NEW GUINEA, 1932-1949 By ELEANOR M. O. LAURIE SYNOPSIS This paper gives a detailed account of a large collection of Mammals, mainly Marsupials and Rodents, from north-east New Guinea and eastern Papua (south-east New Guinea). Comparative descriptions are made of 13 new forms comprising i new genus (rodent), 7 new species (3 marsupials, 2 rodents, i bat, and i monotreme), and 5 subspecies (3 marsupials and 2 rodents). DURING the years 1932-1949 Mr. Shaw Mayer made a collection of mammals in New Guinea. Most of the specimens came from localities of comparatively high alti-tude, where the hill-sides are covered with rain forest. Between 5,000 and 8,000 ft. the lower limit of the wet mossy forest is often reached. From 10,000 to 11,000 ft. is a drier zone of grassland and coniferous forest, the upper limit of the forests being at about 14,000 ft. A list of all the localities from which specimens were obtained is given in Appendix II. Most of them are in north-east New Guinea: the Hagen Range and Sepik-Wahgi Divide, 4,500-8,500 ft. ; the Kratke Mountains and Upper Waria River district, 2,500-6,000 ft. ; the Upper Ramu River Plateau, 6,000 ft. ; Mount Wilhelm and Herowagi, Bismarck Range, 6,000-10,000 ft. ; the Ramu Purari Divide which is south-east of the Bismarck Range, 7,500-8,000 ft. ; and in eastern Papua, south-east New Guinea: Mount Simpson, Mount Mura (30 miles NW. of Mt. Simpson) and the Maneao Range (35 miles NW. of Mt. Simpson), 1,000-7,000 ft. (see Fig. i). A few specimens, mainly rodents, were also collected from West Fergusson Island (which is about 40 miles from the mainland), between 600 and 3,000 ft. Many of these regions have not been investigated before, particularly those near the Bismarck Range and Mount Simpson. The collection comprises 370 marsupials belonging to 29 species, 380 rodents belonging to 31 species, 31 bats belonging to n species, and 5 monotremes belonging to 3 species. Among these specimens which are dealt with in this paper are 13 new forms: 6 marsupials (3 species and 3 subspecies), 5 rodents (i genus, 2 species, and 2 sub-species), i bat (species), and i monotreme (species). Most of the recent work on mammals of New Guinea has been done by G. H. H. Tate (1935-1951), using several valuable collections from Vogelkop, the Arfak Mountains, Humboldt Bay, the Weyland Mountains, Mount Wilhelmina, the Inden-burg River, Fly River, Oriomo River, the Central Division of Papua, the Huon Peninsula, and from islands off the coast of New Guinea. An account of the rodents of Australia and New Guinea by Tate (1951) has been published while this manuscript was in the press. I have, however, been able to refer to it and in the main have fol-lowed his revised nomenclature. Accounts of many of the forms from New Guinea have been given by Thomas and also by Schlegel, Milne-Edwards, Matschie, Ram-sav, Rothschild & Dollman, Hinton & Ellerman.
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