TASMANIA 157 



COMPLETE ABSENCE OF LARGE 

 FAMILIES FROM TASMANIA 

 (Plate 1, Figs. 28, 82) 

 Tasmania is the stronghold of Southern Ocean 

 families as a compensation for its weakness in land 

 families. Some fifty thousand years ago it was 

 joined to Victoria, and that was the opportunity 

 for many Australian families to have gone south 

 to Tasmania. They did not take advantage of the 

 land bridge, possibly because of the poor food sup- 

 ply, and therefore missed their opportunity. Bass 

 Strait formed and made a barrier to dispersal. 

 Gerygone, a family of flyeaters, is one example as 

 shown in map QQ. Why Tasmania should be with- 

 out it and New Zealand with it, or its first cousin, 

 is not due to modern influences. It must date far 

 back when New Zealand was connected with *'a" 

 map 66, and when Victoria had no gerygones. The 

 word means eater of wasps: and it is possible we 

 did not have the proper kind of wasps. Similarly 

 in Tasmania there is no mistletoe bird, because 

 there are no mistletoe berries. 



Menura the Lyre Bird, Psitta the Tree-runner 

 and Climacteris the Tree-creeper, are remarkable 

 mainland families absent from Tasmania. 



If Antigone the Crane had got across, it would 

 have found a living in the estuaries rather than 

 starve in the absence of plains. 



Tasmanian plains are made up largely of button 

 grass and do not offer much encouragement in the 

 way of food supply. 



