HANDBOOK 



BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It will be evident to all who may turn their attention to 

 the fauna of the great southern land called Australia, that 

 it comprises peculiarities unexampled in any other portion 

 of the globe. The total absence of the Quadrumana, the 

 Carnivora, and the Ruminantia from its mammals, and of the 

 VulturidcB and Picidce from (and the feeble representation of 

 the Gallinaceae among) its birds, are facts too striking to be 

 overlooked. On the other hand, it possesses almost exclusively 

 two orders of mammals, the Marsupialia and Monotremata, 

 comprising many singular forms and a great number of spe- 

 cies — among them being the large family of Kangaroos, of 

 which only two or three abnormal species are known to exist 

 elsewhere. In like manner the Peramelidcs and Fhascogalcd, the 

 Wombats and the Koajas, are almost as strictly confined to it : 

 those singular forms the Ornithorhjnchus and Echidna are 

 only found there; and, supposing the Dingo to have been 

 introduced by human agency, it is probable that no more 

 highly organized placental land-animal than a Vespertilio or 

 a Mus occurs in the whole of its Mammalia. Although 

 Australia is destitute of many of the great groups of birds 

 inhabiting India and its islands, she possesses many other 



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