2 MR. GERARD KREFFT ON AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGY. [Jan. 9, 



Mr. W. K. Parker, F.R.S., read a memoir on the osteology of the 

 Kagu (Rhmochetus jubatus). The conclusion arrived at by Mr. 

 Parker, from an examination of the osseous structure of this bird, 

 was that the Kagu constituted the type of a distinct family belong- 

 ing to Prof. Huxley's order Geranomorphse, and was most nearly 

 allied to Psophia and Eurypyya. 



This paper will be published in the Society's ' Transactions.' 



Professor Newton exhibited the humerus of a large species of Pe- 

 lican from the lower peat of the Cambridgeshire Fens. 



Though in size exceeding the corresponding bone in Pelecanus 

 onocrotalus, the condition of the extremities showed the specimen 

 to have been that of a young bird — a fact which rendered it not un- 

 likely that the species was an inhabitant of the locality in which the 

 bone was found. The specimen had been submitted to the inspection 

 of M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards by Mr. II. Seeley, of the Wood- 

 wardian Museum at Cambridge (to which it belonged), and was about 

 to be figured and described by the gentleman first named. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Notes on Australian Zoology. By Gerard Krefft, 

 F.L.S.^ C.M.Z.S., Cm-ator and Secretary of the Austra- 

 lian Museum at Sydney, New South Wales. 



It has recently been stated* that the Short-tailed "Wallaby of 

 Western Australia (Jrlalmaturus brachyurus) is the common species 

 found in South-eastern Victoria ; but having received one of these 

 short-tailed specimens, shot at the Bass River in Victoria, from 

 Professor M''Coy, I find it to be identical with the Tasmanian Hal- 

 maturus billardieri. Skull, limbs, and tail are in two specimens, 

 the one from Tasmania, the other from Victoria, exactly alike ; but 

 the colour of the fur of the Victorian species is somewhat lighter. 



That this Wallaby should have been confounded ^ith H. bra- 

 chyurus is difficult to conceive, as the western species resembles in 

 the shape of its skull and dentition the BettongicB much more than 

 the Wallabies. In the whole group we never find so short a tail or 

 hind foot as in H. brachyurus ; and looking at the small incisor 

 teeth, both above and below, the short lower jaw, the broad zygoma, 

 and the strong and powerful premolar, it becomes apparent at once 

 that this animal could not easily be mistaken for the H. billardieri, 

 the latter having a long head, elongate tarsi, broad incisors (as large 

 again as those of the western specimen), and a long and narrow zygo- 

 matic arch. Our best authorities, as Gilbert, Masters, and Water- 

 house, state that H. brachyurus is peculiar to the west coast. 



Again Prof. M''Coy errs when he supposes that the western Tor- 

 toise {Chelodi)ia oblonya) is found in the northern rivers of Victoria. 



* Prof. McCoy, " On the Recent Zoology and Pateontology of Victoria," ' Inter- 

 colonial Exhibition Essays,' 1866-G7, No. 7. Melbourne : Blundell and Co. 



