KANGAROO AND NEW BIRDS. 321 



whicli weig'lied forty pounds^ were killed during* our 

 stay at Cape York. A kang-aroo dog' belong-ing- to 

 Captain Stanley made several fine runs^ all of them 

 unsuccessful however^ as the chase was seldom upon 

 open gTound^ and there was little chance of over- 

 taking- the kang-aroo before it g*ot into some neig-h- 

 bouring* thicket where the dog* could not follow it. 

 This wallaby proved to be the Ilalmaturus agilis, first 

 found at Port Essing'ton^ and afterwards by Leich- 

 hardt in Carpentaria. A sing-ular bat of a reddish 

 brown colour was shot one day while asleep sus- 

 pended from a branch of a tree ; it belong-ed to the 

 g-enus Harpyiay and was therefore a contribution to 

 the Australian fauna. 



Among* many additions to the ornithological col- 

 lections of the voyag-e were eig*ht or nine new species 

 of birds^ and about seven others previously known 

 only as inhabitants of New Guinea and the neig-hbour- 

 ing- islands.* The first of these which came under 

 my notice was an enormous black parrot (3IicrogIos- 

 sus afemmus) with crimson cheeks ; at Cape York 

 it feeds upon the cubbag-e of various palms^ stripping* 

 down the sheath at the base of the leaves with its 

 powerful^ acutelj^-hooked upper mandible. The next 

 in order of occurrence was a third species of the 

 g-enus Tanysipter'a (T. >Sy//f/rA)^ a g-org-eous king-fisher 

 with two lono*, white, central tail-feathers, inhabitino- 



* Many of these have since been figured and described, with 

 accompanying notes on their habits, &c., in the recently pubUshed 

 Supplement to Mr. Gould's Birds of Australia. 



VOL. I. Y 



