OSPHRANTER ROBUSTUS, Gould. 
Black Wallaroo. 
Head of a Male and of a Female, life-size. 
If there be any one of the Great Kangaroos the diseovery of whieh afforded me more 
pleasure than another during my sojourn in Austraha, it is the Great Blaek Wallaroo of 
the mountain-distriets of New South Wales. Surprising, indeed, it was that so large and 
eonspieuous an animal had not been previously made known] and still more surprising is 
the faet that, from the period of my visit in 1838-39 to the present time, 1863, few if 
any skins of the animal have been sent to Europe. Still I ean assure my readers that 
the existenee of the Black Wallaroo is not a myth; for specimens of both sexes grace the 
collections at the British Museum and at Leyden. Like the 0. antilopinus, the 0. robustus 
becomes dangerous both to man and dogs when the rocky and sterile mountain elevations 
it frequents are traversed; for^ like the Ibex of the mountain-ranges of the northern 
hemisphere, the old males will make a determined stand when assaulted and escape is 
impossible. 
As is the case with the sexes of all the other members of this section of the Macropo- 
did< 2 , the male and female of 0. robustus differ considerably in size, the latter being much 
smaller and weaker than the former. 
As the districts inhabited by this fine species are fully described in the succeeding pages, 
it is unnecessary to mention them here. 
A glance at the accompanying illustration, which represents a head of each sex of the 
size of life, will furnish a just conception of the features of these animals. 
