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original habitat gives them a great advantage in the luxuriant islands of the Moluccas, to which they have spread. There they abound to a remarkable extent, and their eggs furnish a luxurious repast to the natives. They have also reached many of the smallest islets, and have spread beyond the limits of the region to the Philippines, and North-Western Borneo, as well as to the remote Nicobar Islands.

The Platycercidæ, or broad-tailed paroquets, are another wide-spread Australian group, of weak structure but gorgeously coloured, ranging from the Moluccas to New Zealand and the Society Islands, and very characteristic of the region, to which they are strictly confined. The Cockatoos have not quite so wide a range, being confined to the Austro-Malayan and Australian sub-regions, while one species extends into the Philippine Islands. The other two peculiar families are more restricted in their range, and will be noticed under the sub-regions to which they respectively belong.

Of the characteristic families, the Pachycephalidæ, or thickheaded shrikes, are especially Australian, ranging over all the region, except New Zealand; while only a single species has spread into the Oriental, and one of doubtful affinity to the Ethiopian region. The Artamidæ, or swallow-shrikes, are also almost wholly confined to the region, one species only extending to India. They range to the Fiji Islands on the east, but only to Tasmania on the south. These two families must be considered as really peculiar to Australia. The Podargidæ, or frogmouths-large, thick-billed goat-suckers-are strange birds very characteristic of the Australian region, although they have representatives in the Oriental and Neotropical regions. Campephagidae (caterpillar-shrikes) also abound, but they are fairly represented both in India and Africa. The Ploceidæ, or weaverbirds, are the finches of Australia, and present a variety of interesting and beautiful forms.

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We now come to the kingfishers, a cosmopolitan family of birds, yet so largely developed in the Australian region as to deserve special notice. Two-thirds of all the genera are found here, and no less than 10 out of the 19 genera in the family are

peculiar to the Australian region. Another of the universally distributed families which have their metropolis here, is that of the Columbidæ or pigeons. Three-fourths of the genera have representatives in the Australian region, while two-fifths of the whole are confined to it; and it possesses as many species of pigeons as any other two regions combined. It also possesses the most remarkable forms, as exemplified in the great crowned pigeons (Goura) and the hook-billed Didunculus, while the green fruit-pigeons (Ptilopus) are sometimes adorned with colours vying with those of the gayest parrots or chatterers. This enormous development of a family of birds so defenceless as the pigeons, whose rude nests expose their eggs and helpless young to continual danger, may perhaps be correlated, as I have suggested elsewhere (Ibis, 1865, p. 366), with the entire absence of monkeys, cats, lemurs, weasels, civets and other arboreal mammals, which prey on eggs and young birds. The very prevalent green colour of the upper part of their plumage, may be due to the need of concealment from their only enemies,-birds of prey; and this is rendered more probable by the fact that it is among the pigeons of the small islands of the Pacific (where hawks and their allies are exceedingly scarce) that we alone meet with species whose entire plumage is a rich and conspicuous yellow. Where the need of concealment is least, the brilliancy of colour has attained its maximum. We may therefore look upon the genus Ptilopus, with its fifty species whose typical coloration is green, with patches of bright blue, red, or yellow on the head and breast, as a special development suited to the tropical portion of the Australian region, to which it is almost wholly confined.

It will be seen from the sketch just given, that the ornithological features of the Australian region are almost as remarkable as those presented by its Mammalian fauna; and from the fuller development attained by the aërial class of birds, much more varied and interesting. None of the other regions of the earth can offer us so many families with special points of interest in structure, or habits, or general relations. The paradise-birds, the honeysuckers, the brush-tongued paroquets, the mound-builders, and the cassowaries-all strictly peculiar

to the region-with such remarkable developments as we have indicated in the kingfishers and pigeons, place the Australian region in the first rank for the variety, singularity, and interest of its birds, and only second to South America as regards numbers and beauty.

Reptiles.-In Reptiles the peculiarity of the main Australian region is less marked, although the fauna is sufficiently distinct. There is no family of snakes confined to the region, but many peculiar genera of the families Pythonidæ and Elapida. About two-thirds of the Australian snakes belong to the latter family, and are poisonous; so that although the Crotalida and Viperidæ are absent, there are perhaps a larger proportion of poisonous to harmless snakes than in any other part of the world. According to Mr. Gerard Krefft the proportion varies considerably in the different colonies. In Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland the proportion is about two to one; in West Australia three to one; and in South Australia six to one. In Tasmania there are only 3 species and all are poisonous. The number of species, as in other parts of the world, seems to increase with temperature. The 3 in Tasmania have increased to 12 in Victoria, 15 in South Australia and the same in West Australia; 31 in New South Wales, and 42 in sub-tropical Queensland.

The lizards of Australia have lately been catalogued by Dr. Günther in the concluding part of the "Voyage of the Erebus and Terror," issued in 1875. They belong to 8 families, 3 of which are peculiar; 57 genera of which 36 are peculiar; and about 140 species, all but 2 or 3 of which are peculiar. The scinks and geckoes form the great bulk of the Australian lizards, with a few Agamidæ, Gymnopthalmida, and Varanidæ. The three peculiar families are the Pygopodidæ, Aprasiidæ and Lialida; comprising only genera and 7 species. The above all belong to Australia proper. Those of the other sub-regions are few in number and will be noticed under their respective localities. They will perhaps bring up the number of genera to 70. West and South Australia seem to offer much peculiarity in their lizards; these districts possessing 12 peculiar genera,

while a much smaller number are confined to the East and South-East, or to the North.

Among the fresh-water turtles of the family Chelydida there are three peculiar genera-Chelodina, Chelemys, and Elseya, all from Australia.

Amphibia.-No tailed amphibians are known from the whole region, but no less than eleven of the families of tail-less Batrachians (toads and frogs) are known to inhabit some part or other of it. A peculiar family (Xenorhinidae), consisting of a single species, is found in New Guinea; the true toads (Bufonida) are only represented by a single species of a peculiar genus in Australia, and by a Bufo in Celebes. Nine of the families are represented in Australia itself, and the following genera are peculiar to it:-Pseudophryne (Phryniscida), Pachybatrachus, and Chelydobatrachus (Engystomydæ); Helioporus (Alytidæ); Pelodyras and Chirodyras (Pelodryada); Notaden (Bufonida).

Fresh-water Fish.-There is only one peculiar family of freshwater fishes in this region-the Gadopsida-represented by a single genus and species. The other species of Australia belong to the families Trachinidæ, Atherinidæ, Mugillidæ, Siluridæ, Homalopteræ, Haplochitonidæ, Galaxidæ, Osteoglossidæ, Symbranchidæ, and Sirenoidei; most of the genera being peculiar. The large and widely-distributed families, Cyprinodontidae and Cyprinidæ, are absent. The most remarkable fish is the recently discovered Ceratodus, allied to the Lepidosiren of Tropical America, and Protopterus of Tropical Africa, the three species constituting the Sub-class Dipnoi, remains of which have been found fossil in the Triassic formation.

Summary of Australian Vertebrata.-In order to complete our general sketch of Australian zoology, and to afford materials for comparison with other regions, we will here summarize the distribution of Vertebrata in the entire Australian region, as given in detail in the tables at the end of this chapter. When an undoubted Oriental family or genus extends to Celebes only we do not count it as belonging to the Australian region, that island being so very anomalous and intermediate in character.

The Australian region, then, possesses examples of 18 families of Mammalia, 8 of which are peculiar; 71 of Birds, 16 being peculiar; 31 of Reptiles, 4 being peculiar; 11 of Amphibia, with

peculiar; and 11 of Fresh-water fish, with 1 peculiar. In all, 142 families of Vertebrates, 30 of which are almost or quite confined to it, or between one-fourth and one-fifth of the whole number.

The genera of Mammalia occurring within the limits of this region are 70, of which 45 are almost, or quite, confined to it. Of Land-Birds there are 296 genera, 196 of which are equally The proportion is in both cases very nearly five

limited. eighths.

This shows a considerable deficiency both in families of Vertebrates and genera of Mammalia, as compared with the Oriental and Ethiopian regions; while in genera of Birds it is a little superior to the latter in total numbers, and considerably so in the proportion of peculiar types.

Supposed Land Connection between Australia and South America.

We may now consider how far the different classes and orders of vertebrates afford indications that during past ages there has been some closer connection between Australia and South America than that which now exists.

Among Mammalia we have the remarkable fact of a group of marsupials inhabiting South America, and extending even into the temperate regions of North America, while they are found in no other part of the globe beyond the limits of the Australian region; and this has often been held to be evidence of a former connection between the two countries. A preliminary objection to this view is, that the opossums seem to be rather a tropical group, only one species reaching as far as 42° south latitude on the west coast of South America; but whatever evidence we have which seems to require a former union of these countries shows that it took place, if at all, towards their cold southern limits, the tropical faunas on the whole showing no similarity. This is not a very strong objection, since climates may have changed in the south to as great an extent as we

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