110 Dr Knox (m the Wornbat of Flinders. 



II. 



The natives of New Holland give the name of Wombat or 

 Womback to several animals which seem to differ essentially 

 from each other, and to constitute distinct species, of which 

 some inhabit the mountains, and others the islands. They use, 

 therefore, the term Wombat generically, and they add to it other 

 terms, expressive, I presume, of some particular quality, or 

 conveying a notion of species as distinct from genus. It is in 

 this way that they seem to use the term Koala, which very er- 

 roneously has been employed to designate a particular genus of 

 an animal distinct from the Wombat, and entitled to precede it 

 in systems of natural history. As it might be asserted, that, 

 under the head Koala, the animal I have described as the Wom- 

 bat of Flinders, is sufficiently characterised, and, if not identical 

 therewith, must be merely a variety of the Koala, as it has been 

 termed, I shall here offer my objections to such an inference. 



It is probable that European writers became first acquainted 

 with the term Koala through the medium of a communication 

 transmitted by Colonel Paterson, Lieutenant-Governor of New 

 South Wales, to Sir E. Home, nearly twenty years ago. Co- 

 lonel Paterson observes, that the species of Wombat which the 

 natives call the Koala Wombat, inhabits the forest of New Hol- 

 land, about fifty or sixty miles to the south-west of Port Jack- 

 son, and was first brought to Port Jackson in August 1803. 

 From this time, the term Koala came to be considered as a dis- 

 tinct genus, and we find it figuring in systems of natural his- 

 tory as a subdivision of the marsupial animals. The distinct and 

 precise manner in which Baron Cuvier notices the Koala, would 

 lead one to suppose that he had examined a specimen ; for he has 

 not only given the generic character of the animal, but also an 

 engraving, which bears but little resemblance to the Wom- 

 bat of Fhnders. The characters of the Koala, as given in the 

 Regne Animal, are, two long incisive teeth in the lower jaw, 

 without any canine teeth, and in the upper jaw two long inci- 

 sive teeth, with some smaller ones at the sides, and two smaller 

 canine. He moreover adds, that the posterior extremities wants 

 the thumb. On the other hand, the excellent naturalist M. Des- 

 niarest describes the Koala as having, incisiv. j^/ausses canines 

 1 



