fluid, concluded that it is a powerful poison, in some instances occasioning almost instant death. The new experiments which Dr. Davy has undertaken to test the accuracy of these statements, so far from weakening his belief in his former conclusions, have only tended to confirm them, and their correctness has also been testified to by Mr. George Rainey.

Of the papers not before published in the Journals, nor in the Proceedings of Societies, two of the most interesting relate to observations and experiments made on the blood, or red fluid of the earth-worm (Lumbricus terrestris). These were made at the request of, and with the assistance of Professor Rolleston of Oxford. The fluid was obtained by puncturing the great cardiac blood vessel with the sharp end of a delicate pipette, and then drawing the fluid into the tube, great care being taken to avoid any mixture of the peri-visceral with the cardiac fluid. The fluid was then submitted to a careful chemical and microscopic examination, from which Dr. Davy concludes that it is to be considered as a true blood. The fluid contained minute corpuscles scattered through it, their average size being about one fourth that of the human blood corpuscle, and the colour of the blood as in the more highly organized animals, was due to these corpuscles floating in it. These corpuscles also, like those of the higher animals, contain a recognizable quantity of iron. From this circumstance, as well as from the large proportional quantity of albumen which the fluid contains, Dr. Davy infers that it performs the double function of receiving and distributing air, and of nourishing the animal.

There are many other memoirs contained in the volume which we should have liked to notice, but the consumption of the space at our disposal warns us that it is time to come to a conclusion. We may state, however, that there are various papers on the temperature of man and animals; on the excreta of insects, and fish; on the colostrum and meconium; on the tadpole; and on eggs, in which many new facts are embodied. Finally, we may say there are few subjects the physiologist is called upon to discuss on which much information may not be found in some one or other of the numerous memoirs written by Dr. John Davy.

8

II. THE MAMMALS OF THE AUSTRALIAN REGION.

(1.) THE MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA. By John Gould, F.R.S. etc. London, 1863, 3 vols. imp. fol.

(2.) AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA. the same author. London, 1863, 8vo.

By

(3.) OVER DE ZOOGDIEREN VAN DER INDISCHEN ARCHIPEL. Door S. Müller-in Verh. Nat. Gesch. Nederl. ovezeesch. Bez.-Zoologie. Leiden, 1839-44.

(4.) LIST OF SPECIES OF MAMMALIA SENT FROM THE AROO ISLANDS BY MR. WALLACE. By Dr. J. E. Gray. P.Z.S. 1858, P. 106. (5.) DESCRIPTION of a new SPECIES OF CUSCUS, FROM THE ISLAND BATCHIAN, WITH A LIST OF THE MAMMALS COLLECTED

IN

THAT ISLAND, BY MR. WALLACE. By Dr. J. E. Gray. P.Z.S. 1860, p. 1.

(6.) ON THE ZOOLOGY OF NEW GUINEA. By P. L. Sclater, M.A. etc. in Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc. Zool. vol. ii. 1858.

THE well-known general peculiarities of the Australian Fauna are certainly in no case better exemplified than as regards its Mammals. No other one of the six geographical divisions, into which the existing terrestrial Vertebrate-Fauna of this planet may be most conveniently divided, possesses a whole Order, confined within its limits. In no other region are 8 out of the 12 or 13 great divisions, into which Mammals are usually divided, absolutely unrepresented by a single indigenous species. Australia, again, is the only country where twothirds of all the species of native Mammals belong to one abnormal order. In fact, the peculiarities of the Australian Mammal-fauna may be summed up in the presence of Monotremes, the prevalence of Marsupials, and the absence of all other Mammals, except Rodents and Bats.

The recent completion of Mr. Gould's great work provides us with a convenient excuse for entering, somewhat at length, upon the subject of these peculiarities, as exhibited in the continent of Australia, after which, we propose to devote a few remarks to what we know of the Mammals of certain adjacent lands, that must also be included in the same Zoological region.

First, then, as regards Australia proper, Mr. Gould's noble series

See Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc. ii. p. 130.

of illustrations and the accompanying letter-press give us full particulars of the outward form and habits of its terrestrial Mammals, embracing the Monotremes, Marsupials, Rodents, and Bats, and a single Carnivore-the Dingo, probably a recent introduction into the country. Two species of Seals are likewise pourtrayed in Mr. Gould's work, but the Whales, Porpoises, and Dugong are omitted, for the excellent reason that the author, as he tells us, has not had sufficient opportunities for studying them in a state of nature, and did not care to attempt what he could not accomplish satisfactorily. Mr. Gould, we may observe, confines the remarks that accompany his plates to details on the outward specific characters and habits of the animals he pourtrays. He does not enter upon their inward structure or anatomy, nor does he give generic characters nor Latin descriptions of the species, considering that these may be obtained from general works on Masticology.*

Mr. Gould commences at the bottom of the series, and devotes his first plates to the three known species of the order Monotremata. These are the Ornithorhynchus, which inhabits New South Wales and Tasmania, and two species of Echidna―E. hystrix of New South Wales, and E. setosa-its representative species in Tasmania. Mr. Gould then begins the Order Marsupialia with three very remarkable and abnormal forms, which have not hitherto been placed in juxtaposition. These are Myrmecobius, Tarsipes, and Choropus, each represented by a single species only. Myrmecobius is located by Mr. Waterhouse-our best authority in such matters-among the Dasyurida, Tarsipes with the Phalangers, and Charopus with the Peramelide. But Tarsipes, though most nearly allied, without doubt, to Petaurus sciureus and other small Phalangers-with which it agrees in the important character of the absence of spinous processes in nearly all the cervical vertebræ-certainly resembles Perameles in the form of its skull. And as the typical Peramelida follow on after Choropus, we cannot accuse Mr. Gould of misplacing the latter form.

The only known species of Myrmecobius was first discovered in Western Australia, but extends eastward into South Australia. One of its most remarkable peculiarities consists in its large number of teeth. The complete series is no less than 52 in number-the molars being 8 above and 9 below. They are, at the same time,

"Mammalogy" is a dreadful word that any one acquainted with Greek and Latin should scout. We see no objection to Masticology-uάorikov being the Greek equivalent of mammale—and this term seems preferable to "Mastozoology."

rather complicated in structure, and provided with prickly points. Another peculiarity is that, as in the Antechini, the female is entirely destitute of a pouch; the only protection afforded to the offspring, when attached to the nipples, being the long hairs which cover the under surface of the maternal abdomen.

The Tarsipes rostratus, another almost equally isolated form, is a little long-snouted, mouselike Marsupial, peculiar, as far as is at present known, to Western Australia. In the Tarsipes, as in other Phalangistida, the female is furnished with a distinct pouch, and the general structure closely assimilates to that of the little dormouselike Phalangers of the section Dromicia. The Tarsipes being arboreal in its habits, is provided with a prehensile tail, and appears to subsist upon the nectar of flowers, like its compatriots, the Honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) in the class of Birds.

The Choropus castanotis, found in the interior of New South Wales, as well as in Southern and Western Australia, is, as we have already observed, closely allied to the typical Peramelide, and undoubtedly a member of this family of Marsupials. Besides the Choropus, Mr. Gould gives us figures of six apparently well-distinguished species of this group, and includes two others in his list as doubtful species. The Bandicoots, as these Marsupials are called in Australia, are of small size, the largest not exceeding in bulk a hare; they burrow in the ground like rabbits, and live principally on roots. They are readily distinguishable, structurally, from all the Marsupials of the same country by the number of their incisive teeth, of which there are ten in the upper and six in the lower jaw. No other Australian Marsupial has more than eight upper incisors, the true Opossums of America alone showing an approximation to the Peramelide in this respect. Each district of Australia has peculiar species of this group. P. lagotis and myosurus are found in Western Australia, P. gunnii in Tasmania, P. nasuta in New South Wales, P. macrura in Northern Australia, and P. fasciata in the interior of South Australia, ranging into the adjoining parts of Victoria and New South Wales. P. obesula, on the contrary, has a wide distribution, specimens from all parts of the southern portion of Australia, from Swan-river to Tasmania, having been examined by Mr. Waterhouse, and pronounced to be identical.

After the Peramelidæ Mr. Gould's work proceeds to deal with the important family of the Phalangers (Phalangistida), which, next to the Kangaroos, may be considered as the most characteristic

family of Australian Marsupials. The Phalangers, so called from having the second and third toes of the hinder foot united in a common integument, are essentially an arboreal group. They are "expert climbers and, living upon trees, feed upon their leaves, buds and fruits." Like most other Mammals of this singular country they are nocturnal in their habits, "remaining concealed during the day on the branches or in the hollows of trees, and quitting their retreat at twilight to search for food amongst the branches." Mr. Waterhouse divides them into three sections, and Mr. Gould's arrangement of the series seems to coincide with Mr. Waterhouse's indications. The first section contains only the somewhat isolated form Phascolarctos, readily distinguishable from its fellow Phalangistide by the absence of a tail. The Koala or Native Bear, as it is called by the Australians, inhabits New South Wales, ranging northwards into Queensland, but not, as far as is at present known, into the Western Colonies. It is the favourite food of the aborigines, being of rather larger size than most other animals as easily attainable. Only one species of Phascolarctos is known. The second section of Phalangistidæ embraces those forms which have a prehensile tail. These are Phalangista, Cuscus, and Dromicia. Mr. Gould gives us six of the first of these genera, one of the second, and three of the third as Australian. But Cuscus, as we shall presently see, belongs to the more northern portion of the Australian Zoological Region, and is represented in Australia proper solely by a single straggling species obtained in the northern peninsula of Cape York. The third and last section of Phalangistidæ consists of those forms in which the tail is not prehensile. The Flying Phalangers (Petauri) are also easily distinguishable by the membrane which extends between the fore and hind limbs, and serves to sustain them in the air when descending from the summit of one tree to the base of another, thus presenting an extremely interesting analogical resemblance in outward conformation to the Flying Squirrels (Pteromys, &c.). Mr. Gould figures seven species of the section of Flying Phalangers, arranging them in three genera, Petaurista, Belideus, and Acrobates, in accordance with the classification adopted by Mr. Waterhouse.

The Phalangers are succeeded in Mr. Gould's work by the Carnivorous family Dasyuride, which are thus somewhat unfortunately, as we think, intercalated in the middle of the herbivorous Marsupials; although we cannot suppose that Mr. Gould considers this to be