159 IN CONFIRMATION OF THE GENUS OWENIA SO-CALLED. By C. W. De Vis, M.A., Corr. Mem. (Plate xiii.) Some two years ago a few fossil bones were sent to me from the town of Warwick, Queensland. Unimportant in themselves they begot the hope that others would follow, but the hope proved futile, as no one on the spot was sufficiently interested in such matters to look for more. As it seemed important to ascertain whether the neighbourhood were indeed fossiliferous, Mr. H. Hurst was commissioned in August last to repair to the district and institute a careful search. This he did. The first fruits of an otherwise scanty ingathering were a Diprotodon skull in fragments, and the greater part of a large mandible in fairly sound condition. The latter at once met with a hearty recognition; its incisors and premolars were those of the genus to which the name Owenia had been assigned. The discovery of a second species of the genus is opportune, inasmuch as it establishes a validity which has been denied, and offers for reconsideration a name which is undeniably liable to extinction. Suggested by a strong desire to commemorate, in even so feeble a fashion, the labours of the first interpreter of the marsupiate fossils of Australia, the name was proposed in spite of its declared preoccupation in sundry genera of recent inverte-brates. The hope was cherished that since its appropriation to an extinct mammalian genus would cause little or no inconvenience, it might be allowed to pass current. But sentiment will evidently 11
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