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was subsequently described by M. Desmarest as Kan gurus (Macro pus) cugenii. 

 The actual type specimen no longer exists in the Paris Museum, and the descrip- 

 tion of it does not well accord with the accounts of the navigators. The 

 question may therefore be very legitimately asked if the St. Peter or Eugene 

 Island wallaby appears, from the descriptions of the early navigators themselves, 

 to have been the animal which is now known as Thyogale (Macropns) eugenii. 

 Peron and Lesueur give us the following account : — "Le kanguroo existe en 

 grand nombre sur L'ile Eugene, ou Ton pent en f aire un chasse productive ; 

 nous ne I'avons point vu sur le continent. Ce quadrupede parvient au poids 

 de huit a dix livres (quatre a cinq kilogrammes) : sa foururre est epaisse son 

 poil tres fin et d'une belle couleur rousse tirant sur le brun." In the first place, 

 a weight of eight to ten pounds is quite inadequate for the wallaby now known 

 as cugenii, for that animal weighs three times as much. Again, the statement 

 of Flinders that its size was "not superior to that of a hare" makes it appear 

 almost certain that the so-called Dama wallaby was not the animal which Flinders 

 saw. The description of the pelage as given by the French naturalists could 

 not, even allowing for the inexactness of colour terms, be taken as typical of 

 the present cugenii. We can only conclude that the animal which Flinders saw, 

 and of which Peron and Lesueur gave their account, is now entirely extinct 

 upon the island on which it originally lived, and that it almost certainly was 

 not the animal which is now known as Thyogale eugenii. What it was can 

 only be guessed at, and that is a business of but little utility in science ; we 

 might hazard that it was a member of the Genus Lagorchestes, or, maybe, 

 Bcttongia; it may have been the same "kangaroo rat" as was only recently 

 exterminated on St. Francis Island ; but beyond that we cannot go. 



When it was exterminated on St. Peter Island, I do not know. St. Peter 

 Island is a considerable land mass, and has long been inhabited. It is high 

 time it was thoroughly examined, and its remaining flora and fauna studied. 



In connection with this animal there is another point worthy of note. 

 It is usual in South Australia to allude to the West Coast of Eyre Peninsula as 

 "the West Coast." This custom has led to considerable confusion, for the term 

 "Islands of the West Coast," though well understood locally, has more than 

 once caused the habitat to be given as islands on the West Coast of (Western) 

 Australia. 



Flinders Island. — Of the wallaby of this island Flinders says, "A small 

 species of kanguroo, not bigger than a cat, was rather numerous. I shot five 

 of them, and some others were killed by the botanists and their attendants, and 

 found to be in tolerably good condition." 



It is a pleasure to be able to report that the Flinders Island wallaby is not 

 extinct. When I visited the island in November, 1920, I searched as much of 

 the scrub-covered portion of this large island as was possible in the time, and 

 I saw no trace of the wallabies. Mr. May, who has long been resident on the 

 island, was convinced that they had been extinct for the last ten years. When 

 they were abundant their range on the island had been somewhat restricted, and 

 in 1910 a destructive bush fire swept over their portion of the island. Since 

 1910 no trace of the animals had been seen. I visited the island again in 

 1922, and very soon after landing came upon wallaby tracks ; evidently quite a 

 flourishing little colony inhabited their old area. No living animal was seen, and 

 a dog pressed into the service failed to start any. At this end of the island 

 the bush is dense and aflfords them excellent cover ; nevertheless, Mr. May 

 informed me that of late he had seen them on several occasions. 



What species it may be cannot be definitely stated. Before 1910. when 

 wallabies were abundant on Flinders Island. Mr. May is very definite that two 

 species were present — the one, a grey-brown animal, was very common ; and the 



