BY JOSEPH LAUTERER, M.D. Xlll 



Zoological knowledge has made a vast progress since the 

 discovery of Australia. Dampier took to Europe the first report 

 of the kangaroo, which he named " a racoon jumping on his 

 hind legs." In the zoological garden of Batavia, accordnig to 

 Le Brun (1717) were kept, under the name of Philander, some 

 kangaroos, very likely from Dutch New Guinea. Cook, in 1770, 

 saw the first Australian grey kangaroo f Macro pm major), and 

 compared it with the spaniel of the old country. 



Dr. George Shaw, of the British Museum, wrote the first work 

 on the zoology of New Holland in 1794, in one volume with twelve 

 coloured plates. In 1799 he described the Duckbill {Omithor- 

 rhynrhus paradoxus), and named it Platypus anatinus. Since that 

 time zoological progress in Australia went hand in hand with 

 the advancement of knowledge in Europe and America. 



Linnseus and Fabricius described and named some beetles 

 and butterflies taken home by Banks and Solander. 

 Walkenaer embodied Australian spiders in his classical work ; 

 Milne Edwards, and Haime described corals and crustacag from 

 Australia. Grey wrote, in 1841, a pamphlet respecting the 

 geographical distribution of animals in New Holland. In 1866 

 Professor McCoy gave a report on animal life ot Victoria to the 

 Intercolonial Exhibition. Of the 2,300 mammals on the whole 

 globe, Australia possesses only 200 species, namely 3 monotre- 

 mata, 132 marsupials, 23 bats, 1 dog, 38 mice, and 3 seals. 

 Gray, Gould, and Waterhouse have described and named most 

 of them. In 1884 Mr. Caldwell, a young British scientist, who 

 visited Australia expressly to study the habits of the 

 monotremata, discovered the fact that the female lays eggs, 

 which are afterwards hatched and the young nourished by the 

 milk of the mother, although no teats are observable. In 1884 

 Lumholz discovered the tree kangaroo, which was named 

 Dendrolagus Lumholzi by Collett. Mr. De Vis described two 

 other species of tree kangaroos from Tropical Queensland, 



Of birds the whole globe has about 6,000 species; Europe con- 

 tains 500, Australia possesses 600. Gould's grand illustrated work 

 is the chief source of reference for Australia. Gray, Schlegel, 

 Latham, and E. P. Ramsay are the prominent workers in this field 

 of knowledge. Mr. De Vis enriched the Queensland Museum 



