The identity of Cook’s Kangaroo
Abstract
In a joint paper concerning "Captain Cook's Kangaroo", in the "Australian Zoologist" for 1925, original accounts were quoted to emphasize the fact that, contrary to popular belief, and subsequent writings which maintained the fallacy, Cook's party did not observe the actual animal at Botany Bay. It was also demonstrated conclusively that the Great Grey Kangaroo (Macropus major Shaw, 1800), hitherto generally listed as Macropus giganteus, is not identical with the small species of kangaroo first observed by Cook and his party at Cooktown.
The ineligible generic names of Jaculus and Jerboa were applied to Cook's animal in 1777 in reference to the outward resemblance to the small rodent jerboas of other lands, together with the specific names of giganteus and gigantea, respectively by Erxleben and Zimmermann, because of its gigantic size in com: parison with them. It was indicated, however, by the present authors in the Check-list of Mammals that the name giganteus for Cook's species was also antedated by that of cangaru, applied by Muller in 1776 in the Systema Naturre of Linné, based upon the original written versions of the name used by the aborigines.
