The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations ...

;chap, xiii.] THE AUSTKALIAN REGION. 391Marsupialia and Monotremata, found nowhere else on the globeexcept a single family of the former in America. The Marsupialsare wonderfully developed in Australia, where they existin the most diversified forms, adapted to different modes of life.Some are carnivorous, some herbivorous ; some arboreal, othersterrestrial. There are insect-eaters, root-gnawers, fruit-eaters,honey-featers, leaf or grass-feeders. Some resemble wolves,others nVarmots, weasels, squirrels, flying squirrels, dormice orjerboas. They are classed in six distinct families, comprisingabout thirty genera, and subserve most of the purposes ineconomy of nature, fulfilledthein other parts of the world by verydifferent groups ;yet they all possess common peculiarities ofstructure and habits which show that they are members ofone stock, and have no real affinity with the Old-World formswhich they often outwardly resemble.The other order, Monotremata, is only represented by two rareand very remarkable forms, Ornitlwrhynchus and Echidna, probablythe descendants of some of those earlier developments ofmammalian life which in every other part of the globe have longbeen extinct.The bats of Australia all belong to Old-World genera andpossess no features of special interest, a result of the wanderinghabits of these aerial mammals.The Eodents are more interesting.They are all more or less modified forms of mice or rats.Some belong to the widely distributed genus Mus, others to fourallied genera, which may be all modifications of some commonOld-World form. They spread all over Australia, and alliedspecies occur in Celebes and the Papuan Islands; so that althoughnot yet known from the Moluccas, thereetettfeMhat some of them exist there.can be littleBirds.—The typical Australian region, as above defined, isalmost as well characterized by its birds, as by its mammaliabut in this case the deficiencies are less conspicuous, while thepeculiar and characteristic families are numerous and important.The most marked deficiency as regards wide-spread families, isthe total absence of Fringillidse (true finches), Picidse (woodpeckers),Vulturidse (vultures), and Phasianidee (pheasants)