ANIMALS AND BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA

Southland Times, Issue 23502, 7 May 1938, Page 14

ANIMALS AND BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA

UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS WILD NATURE IN AUSTRALIA. By Charles Barrett, C.M.Z.S. Robertson and Mullens, Ltd. Price 2/6. Reviewed by J. H. SORENSEN In “Wild Nature in Australia,” the author has presented to the public a quarto volume containing 31 beautifully reproduced pictures of the unique animals and birds of Australia. Eacn photo has a page of letter-press setting out the natural history, habits, beauties and occurrence of the subject. The photo of “Splash,” the platypus, at the front door of his box opening on to a'swimming tank, is well worth the very moderate price of the volume. It will be news to many that a platypus was successfully kept in captivity and that it thrived. Robert Eadie of Badger Creek, Healesville, Victoria, constructed an ingenious “platypussary” in his garden, and there “Splash” led a happy life for more than four years. His death in 1937 was reported as front page news in Australian papers. But the platypus is only one of the wonderful animals described in this book, and there are others no less interesting. Special mention may be given to the koalas, or teddy-bears, and to the rare cuscus, which is responsible for the stories existing about monkeys living in Northern Queensland and New Guinea. Even today many city folk half-believe in Australian monkeys, a popular error, for they are marsupials, and members of the family to which the opossums and flying squirrels belong. Of the birds featured, the fairy penguins, the bower-birds and the mound-building birds are particularly interesting; and even Australian insect life is not overlooked, for the large curious stick-insect is featured. The giant earthworm, the largest annelid in the world, which in rare cases attains a length of 12 feet, but commonly of six to nine feet, will appeal to anglers as a suitable bait for something the size of the “one that got away.” Altogether this attractive book can be said to increase the reader’s knowledge and interest, and it should command a ready sale both in and outside Australia, and help to attract to the Commonwealth visitors from all over the world.