448 Zoological Society. 



haired Lagorchestes (Lagorchestes albipilis), and have tried hard to 

 procure a specimen ; it is a species well known to the natives of 

 Moore's river, by whom it is called ' Nar-nine,' and is only to be found 

 in densely thick scrub on flats, and on the edges of swamps where 

 the small brush Melaleuca grows so thickly that it is almost impos- 

 sible for a man to force his way through ; its runs being under this, 

 the animal escapes even the quick eye of a native. The only possible 

 means of obtaining it is by having a number of natives to clear the 

 spot, and two or three with guns and dogs to watch for it. 



" This beautiful little animal makes no nest, but squats precisely 

 like a hare, as I have been assured by Mr. Johnson Drummond. Of 

 the other species with white behind the ears I can learn very little : 

 are you satisfied it is not a variety ? I have seen many with white 

 spots about different parts of the head, which is said by all the 

 hunters to be a common occurrence ; the only character which ap- 

 pears to me to approach a specific difference is the redness of colour- 

 ing, which has been often observed by hunters ; the woolly nature of 

 the fur is only the winter covering common to all of them. 



" The grey kangaroo, Macropus Ocydromus, Gould, of which I 

 have a very interesting series, has very thin hair in summer, while 

 in winter the coat is thick and woolly. 



" The male is called Yoon-gur and the female Work by the abori- 

 gines. This large kangaroo is tolerably abundant over the whole 

 colony of Western Australia, from King George's Sound, south, to 

 forty miles north of Moore's river, the farthest point I have reached ; 

 it does not appear to confine itself to any peculiar description of 

 country, being as often seen in the gum-forests, among hills, as on 

 the open plains and clear grassy hillocks ; it is however more nume- 

 rous in the open parts of the country, where it is not so liable to sur- 

 prise. In travelling from Guilford to York, from two to four or five 

 may occasionally be met with ; but farther in the interior, particularly 

 at Gwangum plains, herds of thirty to fifty may often be met with : 

 further south, beyond Kojenup, they are still more numerous ; in fact, 

 I have never seen in any part of Australia so large a herd as the one 

 I met with on the Gordon plains in 1840 ; at the most moderate cal- 

 culation there could not have been less than five hundred kangaroos ; 

 several of the party, in their astonishment, considered there were 

 even a greater number than I have stated. 



"The large full-grown male is termed a Buck or Boomer, and 

 attains a great size, when he becomes a most formidable opponent 

 to. the best dogs in the country, few of which will ever run a large 

 Boomer ; this may in some degree account for the few instances of 

 very large ones being killed. It is not by their greater speed that 

 they are enabled to escape ; on the contrary, their great weight 

 in some measure incapacitates them for running fast, or to any great 

 distance, so that almost any dog may overtake them ; instead, there- 

 fore, of running away, the Boomer invariably turns round and faces 

 his pursuers, erecting himself to his full height, if possible with his 

 back against a tree, and thus awaits the rush of the dogs, endeavour- 

 ing to strike them with his powerful hind-toe, or catching them in 



