33 



It Is a very beautiful and welLmarked species, distmgui.hed from 

 ele y oS member of its genus by the long ^edd^sh hairs of the 

 rump The extreme tip of the tail is white, but vs-hether this cha- 

 racter is constant or not is at present unknown. 



At the reauest of the Chairman, Mr. Gould read the foUovving ex- 

 tracts from a Tetter he had received from Mr. Gilbert descnbmg the 

 habt &c of some Mammalia and Avės of Western A- - .^"^ 

 " With respect to the Kangaroos, I have heard of the httle silver- 

 haired Lagorchestes (Lagorchestes alMpiUs) and ^-e tned hard to 

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

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

 i^denseiy thck^scrub on flats, and on the edges of swamps where 

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

 sible for a man to force his way through; its runs bemg under this. 

 he animal escapes even the quick eye of a native. The only po^sible 

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

 spot and two or three with guns and dogs to xv^tch for lt. 

 ^ " This beautiful little animal makes no nešt. but squats precisely 

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

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

 are you satisfied it is not a variety ? I have seen many w.th white 

 :;otI about diiferent parts of the head. which is -;d bj^^į ^^e 

 hunters to be a common oceurrence ; the only character ^hich ap- 

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

 fnT^hich has been often observed by hunters ; the woolly nature of 

 the fur is only the winter covering common to all ot them 



■'The grey kangaroo. Macropns Ocydromus, Gould, of wluch I 

 have a vfry interesting series, has very thin hair m summer, ^vh.le 

 in winter the coat is thiek and vvooUy. , „^ , u .-i, oi,^^ 



•• The malė is ealled Yoon-gur and the female TTor^ by the abon- 

 <^nes. This large kangaroo is tolerably abundant over the ^hole 

 foW of Western Australia. from King George s Sound. south to 

 fo ty mUes uorth of Moore's river, the farthe.t pomt I have reaehed ; 

 Itdoes not appear to confine itself to any pecuhar descnption of 

 counTy. being as often seen in the gum-forests among hiUs. as ou 

 the opi; plains and clear gi'assy hillocks ; it is hovvever more nume- 

 rous Fn th^e open parts of the country, ^vhere it is not so hable to sur- 

 prise ntrivelling from Guilford to York, from two to four or five 

 mav occasionally be met ^^'ith; but farther in the mterior, particularly 

 Tt Gwangum plins, herds of thirty to fifty may often be met ^h : 

 ?,^rther south, beyond Kojenup, they .re stiU more numerous ; m fact 

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

 mlt\vith on the Gordon plains in 1840 ; at the mnst naoderate c^- 

 cuTat on there could not have been less than five hundred kangaroos ; 

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

 even a ereater number than I have stated. „ , „ „„ , 



'^Thf large full-grown malė is termed a Buck or Boomer, and 

 -vttainra Seat size when he becomes a most formidable opponent 

 ?o 'h; bes? dogs in the country, few of .vhich will ever run a large 



