ORDER MARSUPIALIA: MARSUPIALS 65 



no. 3, p. 80, 1934). While the exact geographical limits of the 

 several subspecies have not been fully determined, we may pro- 

 visionally consider the range of cinereus to be New South Wales; 

 of adustus, Queensland; and of victor, Victoria and southeastern 

 South Australia. 



In New South Wales Gould (1863, vol. 1, pp. 18-19) considered 

 the animal "nowhere very abundant" but most numerous "in the 

 brushes which skirt the sea side of the mountain-ranges between 

 the district of Illawarra and the River Clarence." He recorded it 

 also "among the cedar brushes of the mountain ranges of the interior, 

 particularly those bordering the well-known Liverpool Plains." He 

 prophesied that it "is certain to become gradually more scarce, and 

 to be ultimately extirpated." 



"Though at one time extremely numerous, the koala is now, over 

 the greater part of its range, very scarce. This is largely due to 

 a disease which swept it off in millions in the years 1887-8-9, and 

 from 1900 to 1903. This disease took the form of ophthalmia and 

 periostitis of the skull. Bears are generally heavily infected with 

 intestinal parasites." (Le Souef and Burrell, 1926, p. 292.) 



At Marrangaroo, County of Cook, N. S. W., "the native bear 

 was quite common then [1884-5], but quite extinct there now" 

 (Chisholm, 1923, p. 60) . On the Comboyne Plateau, N. S. W., it 

 is "very rare here now and only inhabiting the Eucalypt timber at 

 the edge of the Plateau" (Chisholm, 1925, p. 72). 



In the fox-free eastern coastal area "there are also a few Koalas, 

 but these never get a chance, as the temptation to shoot or catch 

 the defenceless little animals as they sit exposed on a bough, is 

 more than the so-called sportsmen of the community can resist, 

 and even in our National Parks they are destroyed" (Le Souef, 

 1923, p. 110). 



Barry writes (1928, p. 163) of the Koala's status on Kuringai 

 Chase, near Sydney: "Native Bears were also common here years 

 ago, but now, as in most places in New South Wales, they are 

 rarely seen." 



"The typical N. S. Wales animal has been reduced to a state 

 verging upon extinction, in which the setting aside of adequate 

 areas with assured supply of favoured eucalypt diet trees presents 

 the only hope of survival. It is notable that any attempt to breed 

 them in captivity is dependent for ultimate success on the provision 

 of such reserves." (E. Le G. Troughton, in litt., April 16, 1937.) 



Lydekker remarks (1894, p. 80) in regard to the Koala's economic 

 status: 



The flesh is considered a great delicacy by the natives, and is regarded as 

 not unpalatable even by Europeans. Of its pursuit by the natives in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Port Jackson, Colonel Patterson writes as follows: "The natives 



