Mr. Gray on Phalangista Cookii. 295 



and described by Captain Cook himself. But it is quite unnecessary 

 for my argument to go this length ; for although Mr. Ogilby states 

 very decidedly that the specimens in the Paris Museum belong to the 

 continental or New Holland species, (meaning, I presume, that which 

 was originally found at Endeavour River,) I think there are strong 

 grounds for doubting the correctness of this opinion, which I will 

 now proceed to state. 



1st. All the French writers, as far as I am aware, who have de- 

 scribed the Phalangista Cookii, and who mention its locality, speak 

 of it as peculiar to Van Diemen's Land. 



2ndly. Their descriptions appear to me strictly applicable to the 

 Van Diemen's Land species. 



3rdly. The original specimens in the French Museum are stated by 

 M. Desmarest to have been brought home by Peron and Lesueur, and 

 by M. Temminck to have been derived from the voyage of Labillardiere. 

 I know not which of these gentlemen is right, but in either case it 

 is much more probable that the specimens were from Van Diemen's 

 Land than from Endeavour River, both expeditions having visited 

 Adventure Bay, while Peron and Lesueur touched at no part of 

 the east coast of New Holland, except Port Jackson, and Labillar- 

 diere did not visit that coast at all. I may add, that the Van Diemen's 

 Land species is by far the most abundant in our own collections *. 



These reasons appear to me to be so conclusive, that I would even 

 venture to hope that they may induce Mr. Ogilby to reconsider his 

 opinion. 



As regards the personal matter introduced into the question by 

 Mr. Ogilby, I am loath to meddle with it ; he has, however, rendered 

 it necessary that I should state the facts in justice to myself, and I 

 am determined that this shall be done without a word of harshness 

 or recrimination. Long before Mr. Ogilby made his observations on 

 the subject at the Zoological Society, I had satisfied myself that there 

 existed two very distinct varieties or species of white- tailed pha- 

 langer, confounded by Shaw under the name of " White-tailed Opos- 



* To obviate any misunderstanding, it may be observed that M. Temminck 

 has erroneously referred to a specimen in the French Museum, brought 

 home by M. Gaimard, as having been procured from the island of Ravvak, one 

 of the Moluccas ; but this error has been corrected by M. Lesson (Diet. 

 Class. d'Hist. Nat. 13.), who, after giving Van Diemen's Land as the ha- 

 bitat of the species, expressly states that the specimen in question was ob- 

 tained alive at Port Jackson. With the same view, I may add, that the ani- 

 mal described and figured as the Ph. Cookii in M. Frederic Cuvier's " Mam- 

 miferes," and again described by the same author in the Diet, des Sciences 

 Naturelles, under the name of Petaurus Cookii, belongs to a very different 

 species from either of those in question. 



