Note 108 — Chapter XV

The natives name the kangaroo “Bundar and Wumbuen,” but have separate names for each species. At Goulburn Plains the red species is called “Eran and Warru;” and, although the language of the different tribes vary in other respects, there is often a similarity of the names of animals among them, each having two or three distinctive appellations, which may have been the cause of so much confusion existing among this genus of the mammalia; for Mr. Ogilby, who devoted much time and research to the marsupial quadrupeds of Australia, correctly observes respecting the kangaroos, “They are at present involved in the greatest confusion, and are mentioned in catalogues in the most vague and general, as often incorrect terms, without any distinguishing marks. No department of Australian mammalogy has given me so much trouble as the history of the kangaroos; in none have I arrived at a less satisfactory conclusion.” I only regret that the brief sojourn made in Australia, would not permit me to investigate the subject to the extent I desired. From what I observed there does not appear so much difficulty to ascertain the different species, as has been supposed.