from Van Diemen's Land. 219 



hitherto, is that which should have a new name, and he accordingly 

 proposes for it the name of P. Banksii*. The cause of Mr. Gray's 

 anxiety in this matter may perhaps easily be divined ; but of this 

 the reader will judge. The P. Cookii of all writers refers to the con- 

 tinental species, of which there are specimens at Paris, Leyden, Frank- 

 fort, &c. ; and Mr. Gray's attempt to transfer the name to the Van 

 Diemen's Land species, merely because a plate in Cook's Voyage has 

 been confounded with it, is as productive of confusion as it is dis- 

 ingenuous. His proposed generic name of Hepoona is equally un- 

 happy ; it is really the native name of a Petaurist, and not at all of 

 a Phalanger as erroneously supposed by Mr. Gray : besides which, 

 the group which he thus designates is one which I first pointed out 

 and characterised in March 1836, under the name of Pseudocheirus. 

 The wallaby kangaroo, which Mr. Gray has likewise renamed 

 {H. Tasmanei), is the same species which I had previously described 

 at the Zoological Society under the name of Macropus rufiventer, 

 and of which I have here given a more detailed description. 



I regret having been obliged to make these statements, and sin- 

 cerely hope that Mr. Gray w r ill spare me the trouble of doing so in 

 future. 



I have been much pleased with Mr. Gunn's communication, which 

 contains much valuable information upon the mammals of Van Die- 

 men's Land; and it is therefore with real satisfaction that I have it 

 in my power to supply one of its very few deficiencies, by the follow- 

 ing descriptions of two of the species of kangaroos there mentioned, 

 (p. 105.) 



Macropus (Halmaturus) fruticus, the Brush Kangaroo. — Head, 

 back, croup, and outer surface of the arms and thighs clear russet 

 brown, slightly grizzled with silvery grey, the fur being of a slaty 

 brown colour at the root, and russet brown at the tip, long, copious 

 and thick ; the face from the eyes down, the lips and chin are deep 

 uniform brown, as are likewise the paws both fore and hind, but the 

 whole of the tarsus and hind legs are of a clear light grey colour, 



* Mr. Gray is evidently wrong in this matter. He cannot take away the 

 name of P. Cookii from the animal to give it to a mere picture, merely be- 

 cause the original describers made the mistake of referring to it. Cook dis- 

 covered both species and figured one : the unjigured species has been long 

 known and described under Cook's name; the figured species was first de- 

 scribed by myself last November by the name of P. Viverrina : in proposing 

 to change the names of both species Mr. Gray commits not only a private 

 wrong with regard to me, but a great public injury both to science and the 

 original describers of P. Cookii, by the confusion which he would introduce 

 into the nomenclature. 



