64 
W- B. ALEXANDER, M.A. : 
The list just given appears to me specially remarkable for 
its accuracy. Pelsart, Vlaming and Dampier must have been 
extremely competent observers, since there is nothing in their 
observations to which we can take exception in view of later 
knowledge, with the possible exception of a bird with a song like 
a nightingale, and the hippopotamus’ head, which must have been 
that of a dugong. 
Travellers’ tales are proverbial, and if any of the explorers 
had drawn on their imaginations they might easily have peopled 
the unknown South Land with strange or fabulous animals. 
We can only conclude that Australia was exceptionally fortunate 
in the men who devoted themselves to her exploration. We see, 
too, that before Captain Cook, with Banks and Solander, made 
the famous discoveries in the East, with which Australian zoology 
is generally supposed to have started, a considerable amount of 
accurate information as to the fauna of Western Australia was 
in existence. 
Note . — I am much indebted to the well-known Dutch natural- 
ist, Mr. F. E. Blaauw, for information as to the probable meanings 
of the names of birds contained in the old documents which I 
have quoted. The translations contained in Heere’s " Part 
Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia ” and in Major’s 
“ Early Voyages to Australia,” are frequently wrong, as is only 
natural, since neither of these authors were ornithologists. In 
those cases where the names had been left in Dutch, the English 
equivalents not being known to the translator, Mr. Blaauw’s 
information has enabled me to translate them for the first time. 
