Notices of New Books. 7691 



Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist, or Notes on the Field Sports 

 and Fauna of Australia Felix. By An Old Bushman. 272 pp., 

 12mo. London : Routledge, Warne and Routledge. 1861. 



Why Mr. Wheelwright should adopt a pseudonym, in his very inte- 

 resting and graphic accounts of a sportman's life in Australia and 

 Sweden, is very incomprehensible. I trust he will abandon this course, 

 and allow the name of an honest Englishman to supersede the nom de 

 guerre that he has adopted, just as " Dickens " has superseded 

 " Boz." In this most readable and most reliable volume there is a 

 larger amount of information concerning the furred and feathered tribes 

 of Australia than in all the other works that 1 have read on the same 

 subjects, but at the same time I cannot overcome a feeling of dissatis- 

 faction engendered by the constant want of precision in expression. 

 I will exemplify my meaning by quoting the opening lines of the work. 



" The kangaroo (the koorah of the natives) may be called the Aus- 

 tralian deer, and, being the only large wild animal of chase in the 

 country, deserves something more than a casual notice. Of the largo 

 kangaroo I fancy we had two distinct species in our forests, and a 

 smaller variety called the wallaby, of which animal I believe there are 

 several species, although the common wallaby is the only one met 

 with in the Western-port district." 



Here we have the kangaroo called the "Australian deer," and are 

 told that there are two " species " of kangaroo, besides a " variety " 

 called the wallaby, and of that " variety" there are " several species." 

 I need scarcely tell the readers of the ' Zoologist ' that the kangaroo 

 is not a deer, that the kangaroo and wallaby are of distinct " genera," 

 Macropus and Halmaturus, and that of each " genus " there are many 

 " species." 



Readers unaccustomed to the precision required in Natural History 

 can form little idea of the confusion caused by this want of care in 

 the choice of terms. The description of the leg of the kangaroo as 

 " three-jointed" is equally unsatisfactory, and shows how necessary it 

 is for the naturalist to study the elements of the science before he 

 ■begins to publish. The work as that of a sportsman would have been 

 much more acceptable ; all the sporting passages are graphic and 

 reliable, and I regret that the author has ventured on the task of 

 blending science with the sports of the field ; the capability of doing 

 this effectively is a rare possession. So much for criticism ; now for 

 quotations. 



