1839.] WILD ANIMALS. 243 



and its head is protected by a helmet consisting of a horny 

 substance disposed in plates or scales, one above another. 



Curlews, blue plumaged herons, avosets, and rails, belong- 

 ing to the same order with the bustard and emu, are also 

 abundant. Ducks, petrols, albatrosses, penguins, and peli- 

 cans, are numerous ; and boobies are so plentiful that they 

 have given name to an island on the northern coast. Aus- 

 tralia can also boast of producing, in considerable numbers, 

 the black swan — neither brown or umber, but genuine coal 

 black — the rara avis in terris of the Snlmian bard. 



Geese, turkeys, ducks, and fowls, were introduced by the 

 first colonists, over sixty years ago : and since that time they 

 have increased so rapidly that the country is liberally supplied 

 with them. 



Of the mammalia, there are fifty-eight known species, only 

 twelve of which are found in other regions; and of these 

 twelve, five are whales and four are seals. Thus, there are, 

 in reality, but three terrestrial mammals common to Aus- 

 tralia and other countries ; one of which is the large, strong- 

 winged "Flying Fox," or "Great Bat" of Madagascar; 

 another is a rodent, a co-genera of the American and Asiatic 

 jerboas ; and the third is that well known cosmopolite — the 

 dog.* Thirty-three of the whole number of Australian mam- 

 malia belong to the order marsupialia, and of these more than 

 one half are limited to the continent and the adjacent islands. 

 The most prominent peculiarity of this order of animals is 

 the birth of the young in an immature state : at the time of 

 their birth, the fceti are destitute of limbs and other external 

 organs, and remain attached to the teats of the mother, which 

 enlarge so as to fill the mouth, inclosed in a pouch, or second 

 matrix, formed by the skin of the abdomen, that constitutes 

 the distinctive mark of the order ; and when fully developed, 



* It is doubted by Mr. Ogilby, (Linnsean Transactions, vol. xviii., p. 121, et 

 seq.) whether the Australian dingo, or wild dog. is a native of the continent, and 

 he supposes it may have been carried there by the first primitive settlers. It was 

 certainly unknown in Van Diemen's Land, previous to the settlement of the 

 British colonists on the island. 



