Australian Natural History. 1485 



Notes on Australian Natural History. By J. McGillivray, Esq. 



In order to relieve the tedium of a passage by sea, I seat myself 

 down to fulfil my promise of writing out a few more notes for the 

 1 Zoologist. 1 Field naturalists are often led by the nature of their pur- 

 suits to become sportsmen, from a frequent use of that powerful auxil- 

 iary the gun, and, judging that some of your readers may have taken 

 an interest in anything relating to Australian Zoology, I submit a 

 short account from my journal of the modes of procuring the opossum 

 and the small brush kangaroos. 



In September, 1842, while at Hobart Town, one fine evening, a 

 party of four was made up for the purpose of having a night's opos- 

 sum-hunting, and crossed over to the eastern shore of the Derwent, 

 when, at a farm belonging to Judge Montagu, we found the overseer 

 and a party of convicts awaiting our arrival. The night was beauti- 

 fully fine — one of those heavenly nights " not made for slumber " — 

 the moon being about its full, and not a cloud to be seen. We had 

 four or five dogs with us, curs of various descriptions, which were al- 

 lowed to range about as soon as we had got half a mile from the 

 houses. In the course of a few minutes we were delighted to hear one 

 of them give tongue, and each of us, eager for the first shot, made off 

 through a " scout" of young wattle trees (Acacia affinis) towards the 

 border of a wood, where we found all the dogs assembled at the foot 

 of a tall gum-tree, giving utterance to an occasional bark. An opos- 

 sum had been found and pursued, until at length it took refuge in the 

 tree. Here, being novices, we had some difficulty in seeing the ani- 

 mal, even by getting the tree against the moon, when the outline of 

 every twig and leaf could be clearly made out. At length he was 

 seen, a shot was fired, the dogs barked furiously and attempted to 

 scramble up the tree, — he climbed a little higher, — another shot was 

 more effective than the first, he hung suspended by the tail for a few 

 minutes, and dropped to the ground — a fine Brush-tailed Opossum, 

 (Phalanyista vulpina). Soon afterwards we procured another, of the 

 ring-tailed species, Phalanyista or Hepoona Cookii or Banksii, for 

 there is some confusion as to the nomenclature of this very common 

 animal, which is much smaller than the other. Not long afterwards 

 a large individual of the brush-tailed kind was found extended motion- 

 less along a branch, expecting us to overlook him, which however was 

 not the case. Leaving the small hill on which we then were, we de- 

 scended into a bottom, along which we walked for several miles 



