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V. Notice of certain AUSTRALIAN QUADRUPEDS, belonging to the Order RopENTIA. 
By W. Ocizsy, Esq., M.A., F. R. A. S., F. L. S., &c. 
Read December 5th, 1837. 
THE anomalous nature of the indigenous quadrupeds of Australia, the almost 
exclusive predominance of the Marsupial family in that singular country, and 
its extreme poverty in the ordinary Monadelphine groups of Mammals, is one 
of the most curious and interesting facts in modern zoology. Setting aside 
the bats, which their physical structure renders in a great measure independent 
of local boundaries, and the Seals and Cetacea, which, from the very nature of 
the element they inhabit, are circumscribed in their geographical range by 
none of those insuperable restrictions which limit the distribution of ordinary 
quadrupeds, I am acquainted with. only, six or seven species of terrestrial 
Mammals, out of at least sixty already known to inhabit the continent of 
Australia and its immediate dependencies, which do not belong to Marsupial 
forms. This fact is in itself sufficiently singular; but our surprise is still 
further excited when we learn, that, of these six or seven exceptions, all the 
truly indigenous species belong exclusively to the order Rodentia, and that the 
numerous tribes of Quadrumana, Carnivora, Edentata, Pachydermata, and 
Ruminantia are absolutely without any known representatives in that exten- 
sive quarter of the globe. Such at least is the result to which our present 
knowledge of Australian mammalogy conducts us; for, I think, that there 
are strong grounds for believing that the Dingo, or native dog, the only soli- 
tary exception which can be adduced against the universality of this position, 
is not an aboriginal inhabitant of the continent, but a subsequent importation, 
in all probability contemporary with the primitive settlement of the natives. 
Many circumstances might be advanced in support of this opinion; the sim- 
ple fact of his anomaly is itself a strong corroboration of it; and his absence 
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