Central Australian Marsupial Mole. Rarely-seen nocturnal burrower. c1896

by Lydekker, Richard

Noctoryctes typhlops antique print. Mole with light-coloured fur, large claws, membrane-covered eyes and ears, and a short tail, it measures around 10 cm from head to tail. Rarely seen because it is usually burrowing around underground (but doesn't seem to make a burrow-home). Known as Itjaritjari, it was an important ancestral being that featured in the Dreaming of a number of Australian Aboriginal tribes.

Colour-printed c1896 by Wyman & Sons Ltd for A Hand-book to the Marsupialia and Monotremata by Richard Lydekker, B.A., F.R.S., Vice-President of the Geological Society, etc., etc., as part of (Edward) Lloyd's Natural History, edited by Richard Bowdler Sharpe, L.L.D., F.L.S., &c.

Wyman & Sons coloured the steel plates engraved and published by William Home Lizars (1788-1859) c1841 for (Sir William) Jardine’s Naturalist’s Library. This is the only animal added to the Australian marsupials of the 1841 first edition.

Page size is 120 x 180mm (4 3/4 x 7 inches)