408 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



dorsalis) and Kangaroo-Eats (Lagorchestes conspicillatus) , and also 

 many thousands of the large Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) ?* 

 What animal life can long withstand such wholesale massacres ? 

 The discoveries of Tasman, Dampier, and Cook will result in the 

 total extinction of more than one human race, and in the partial 

 extermination of a singular land fauna belonging to a mighty 

 island-continent. The Kangaroo will follow the Aborigine, and 

 both in time become parts of a story to be told, an incident in 

 the battle of human civilization. Other animal life in Australia 

 is beginning to feel the destructive appetite of civilized man. 

 The Cassowary is too large and distinct a bird to escape atten- 

 tion. Of Casuarius australis, Mr. Eamsay, in 1876, relates : — 

 " It was tolerably plentiful only a few years ago even in the 

 neighbourhood of Cardwell, but since the advent of sugar- 

 planters, &c, on the Herbert River and adjacent creeks these 

 fine birds have been most ruthlessly shot down and destroyed 

 for the sake of their skins, several of which I saw used for 

 hearth-rugs and door-mats." t Prof. Dendy, with good reason, 

 urged upon naturalists in Australia and New Zealand the ad- 

 visability of making the most of their time and opportunities in 

 securing representatives of the cryptozoic (sun-hating) fauna ere 

 it be exterminated by the wholesale destruction of forests that is 

 going on. " For when the clearing process is complete, and the 

 last logs have disappeared from the ground, we may expect to 

 lose sight for ever of many peculiar forms which formerly dwelt 

 there."! Nearly half a century ago Bennett saw what was 

 coming, and uttered his warning : — " One of the exciting causes 

 of the destruction of every living native animal that can be met 

 with is the pretence of enriching our museums, while at the same 

 time the overstocked market in Europe renders them for the 

 most part unsaleable ; and it is a well-known fact that the skins 

 of Australian birds, &c, have been re-exported from England to 

 Australia for sale."§ According to Coghlan (' Wealth and 

 Progress of New South Wales '), the New South Wales Govern- 

 ment spent in 1891 the extraordinary sum of s£50,000 in bonuses 



* ' Among Cannibals,' p. 29. 



1 ' Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond.' 1876, p. 120. 



I ' Address, Biol. Sect. Austral. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1895.' 



§ ' Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia,' p. 175. 



