THE ANIMALS OF AUSTRALIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2087, 22 February 1894, Page 42

THE ANIMALS OF AUSTRALIA.

Imagine a country nearly as large as Europe without any of the forms from which domestic animals have descended, unless we except the dingo — the native dog — which, however, is believed to have been introduced by man. We may liken Australia to a gigantic plate. Almost perfectly flat in the centre, it gradually rises as you approach the coast ; its vast plains are covered in many parts with dense scrub ; the rivers are insignificant compared with those of other countiies; and with its salt lakes, its sandstorms, and a climate in the interior so arid that a drouth has been known to last for 26 months, we do not wonder that this isolated, lost land — perhaps millions of years separated from its parent continent — possesses a life Bystem so very primitive and peculiar that naturalists have agreed to make Australia a separate region. We meet here two new orders — Marsupials and Monotremes— which are found nowhere else, excepting the opossum in America. And these animals are the lowest in organisation of all mammals, as well as the earliest to appear in geological time. By a marsupial we mean a mammal which is deEtitute of a placenta to nourish the foetus, and which is provided with a pouch (marsupium) in which it places its immature, embryonic young.

Marsupials vary greatly in habits and looks, and range in size from a mouse to a deer. Some go on pll fours, others move on their bind legs alone ; some eat grass and leaves, others live on meat, insects, and honey. Their brain development is extremely small, and they manifest little if any affection for their offspring ; they are never seen to play with them, and appear to care for nothing but their own stomachs. The most intelligent of Australian marsupials is the opossum ; and here let us say that the American opossum is the most highly organised of the marsupial order. The Australian flying squirrel is closely related to the opossum ; and the smallest of this family, which is not bigger than a mouse, is able to skim through the air and alight with accuracy at a point 80 paces distant. The socalled Australian bear (Phascolarctus cinereus) is quite a harmless marsupial, which feeds on grass, and is in no way related to the bear family. When the young one is old enough to quit the pouch, it perches itself on its mother's back and goes with her wherever she goes. But the marsupial tiger is a carnivorous beast, fierce, and very destructive to sbeep and young cattle. Lower even in organisation than the marsupials are the monotremes. These creatures, which consist of two genera — the Echidna, or native hedgehog, and the Ornithorhynchus, or duckmole — have the marsupial bones but not the poucb, nor have they any teeth. The ornithorhynchus (which has rudimentary teeth not piercing the gum) is possessed of jaws very like the bill of a duck ; its body is 15in long, and the feet are webbed. Tbe echidna also swims very well, but its feet are not webbed. These two mammals exceed in strangeness any other mammals in existence, and show a marked affinity to birds and reptiles. Their skulls — as in the case of birds — are devoid of sutures, while the front extremities are joined to the breastbone by a coracoid and an epicoracoid, the same as in reptiles. But the strangest fact connected with the monotremes is that they do not bring forth their young alive, but lay eggs ; and after tbe little one emerges from the shell it is suckled by the mother. Their eggs, moreover, in their stages of development are very like the eggs of reptiles, and outwardly resemble those of a turtle. A singular lizard is the Australian frilled lizard, so called from a mass of loose skin dangling from its neck, and whicb.it can elevate into a ruff. This little creature, when it is not disturbed, sits upright like a kangaroo, and when it runs it makes long, high jumps, sometimes sft hfgh.

The jungle hen of Australia (Megapodius tumulus)' and tbe brash turkey (Talegalla) are curious birds. They construct with their powerful feet a mound of earth and fallen leaves, in which they bury their eggs, where, reptile-like, they are hatched by the artificial heat generated by the fermenting of the vegetable and other refuse matter. But it ba3 only lately been discovered how the young birds get out of the mound. They lie on their backs and work their way up to the surface with their feet. In the caverns of Australia the fossil remains of many extinct mammals have come to light belonging to the tertiary period. They are all marsupials, and allied to the ones now in existence ; bat none are of an earlier age than the tertiary. One of these extinct animals — the Diprotodon, related to the kangaroo — was almost a 9 big as an elephant. — Catholic World.