AUSTRALIA:- The Land of the Teddy Bear

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 208, 3 September 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIA:- The Land of the Teddy Bear

NOTHING captures the mind of a visitor more than the animals of the country lie i 9 visiting, particularly if they are indigenous. Apart from the fascination of the animals themselves, they are often useful evidence of great changes in the face of the earth long Lftfore the time of known mankind. ; Australia is now the largest island continent in the world, but through her animals it is possible to visualise the time when Australia was part of the land mass now known as Asia, and when Asia was linked with America by the peninsula of Alaska. Hence it is thfit the marsupial is found in America as well as in Australia. Everywhere else this form of life has long been extinct. Little is known of its ancient history, though strong evidence points to its having an enormouslv lengthy career 011 earth. Traces of marsupials have been found in European deposits of great geological antiquity. After Australia was divided from As : «. the pouched animals became extinct in Europe and Asia by the operation of the law of the survival of the fittest. In Australia the marsupial remained in possession from sheer lack of competition and because something in the character of the environment had failed to evolve the family 011 to a higher biological plane

As tlio last link of land between Australia and the outside world to disappear was 'between Cape York and Papua, man; species are common to both Australia anc Papua. Among these are the tree elimbim kangaroo and tlie cassowary, a great wing less bird confined in Australia to one spol on the northern coast of Queensland, but it is met with in islands of the Papuan group. The cassowary and emu descended from a common ancestor which was contemporary with the moa, at a period much earlier than that at which the first traces of the latter giant bird were left in New Zealand. Bower birds and birds of paradise were found fcnth in Australia and Papua, while the native pigeons of Queensland have sprung from Papuan stock. The fauna of Australia at large is concentrated, to a marked degree, in the northeastern corner of tlie continent, and visitors to that section are amazed by the tremendous Variety of animal life. The greater part of Australian mammalian fauna consists of marsupials, a class of animal not discovered alive in any other part of the world, except in the form of the opossums in America, until found in Australia. Kangaroos are still plentiful over most parts of Australia, but the larger types have been driven to some distance from the centres of population and settlement. They are divided into a number of varieties ranging in size from the great "old man kangaroo"' to the kangaroo rat, which is small enough to hide in a clump of grass. The various types alter in accordance with the class of country in which tlicy live, the rock wallaby being especially adapted to comply with certain conditions of life, the black wallaby having been evolved to meet other conditions, and tha tree-climbing division having developed a remarkable and unique faculty which would be of little use on the wide plains of the interior. The koala, or native bear, has more or less become the national pet of Australia. These quaint-looking, tailless, tree-climbing animals are believed to have from ancestry of vastly superior size to that of the present type. The timbered country of Australia abounds with phalanges, popularly, though incorrectly, known as 'possums. Related to the 'possum is the animal generally known as th<3 flying squirrel. It is not capable of real flight, but it is able to glide through tlie air on an inclined plane by means of webbing between the legs. It is thus able to pass from tree to tree for considerable distances without touching the ground. The wombat family of marsupials inhabit the north-east, as well as the striped bandicoot and a rat-like bandicoot. Apart from the bandicoot, the best known mammal of Australia is the dingo, or wild dog. In a class of Its own is the platypus—remarkable aquatic creature of unique structure—which inhabits tli banks of rivers, penetrating them by passage ways beneath the water and slanting upwards to the open air, and the echidna, popularly known as the hedgehog and porcupine, though they 'bear no relationship to either. The echidna is an ant-eater, and it is

armed with long, sharp quills -which effectively protect it from attacks \>v snakes, dogs and other enemies. Not only is Australia rich in the variety of its birds, but also in the beauty of .their plumage. The handsomest are found among the rifle and bower birds, parrots, finches, pigeons, dragoon birds and wrens, which exist in plenty, making the forest resound with their screeching and dazzling the eyes of the traveller with the brightness of their plumage as they flash through the trees. T.iere are various types of eagles, including the Australian eagle, falcons, goshawks, kestrels, kites and harriers. In addition there are a number of owls and kingfishers, including the kookaburra or laughing jackass —the comedian of the bush. Then there is the lyre bird with its extraordinary powers of mimicry*. Two remarkable varieties are the bird of paradise and the bower' bird, the latter attaining its highest development in Queensland. They are remarkable by reason M>f their strange antics while at play and the elaborate arrangements they make for their queer dances. The regent bird, satin bird, an<f the spotted bower bird construct for a playground a gutter shaped pathway, bounded by walls made of grass. They run up aad- down this path carrying shells, pieces of bone and other things which have attracted their fancy and which they/lWve -collected.

The. crest&l bowfer bird finds a spot where two saplings fire to. little 'apart, with a vine or some other connection*joinings them. A family of the birds then surrounds, one Wpling with a wall of interlaced sticks, some raising the structure as high as six feet, and ornamenting" it outside with moss and lichen. The other sapling is ateo surrounded, though less elaborately, and between the two the birds have tHeir playground. Beautiful plumed pigeons, as well as stately black swans, ducks, teal, divers and hosts of other water •fowl and long-legged feeders from the swamps and edges of the abound. Crocodiles inhabit the rivers of Australia and Queensland, growing to a length of 25 < feet over a great number of years. There are large. numbers of fresh water tortoises and large marine thirties, and a great variety of snakes and lizards, including the monitor (commonly goanna), ;