An Australian Bird Book 



A LECTURE 



Australia is the wonderland of the scientist and of the Nature- 

 lover. It is a great living "museum," stocked with marvels ol 

 many kinds, including so-called "living fossils," the sole sur- 

 vivors of otherwise extinct groups of animals. 



Competent authorities have proposed to divide the world, 

 biologically, into two parts — Australia and the rest of the world, 

 and they have considered Australia the more important part. 



This division was based mainly on the study of mammals- 

 animals which suckle their young — for Australia is the home of the 

 two surviving members of the lowest group of mammals — Mono- 

 tremata, the egg-laying Platypus {Ornithorhynchus) , and the 

 Spiny Ant-eater (Echidna). Further, marsupials, except for 

 two kinds found in America, are confined to this long-isolated 

 southern land. 



Here, shut off from the severe competition experienced by 

 the animals of northern lands, marsupials were modified so that 

 they were adapted for life in almost every realm utilized by the 

 higher mammals of other countries. Thus there are herbivorous, 

 carnivorous, and insectivorous marsupials. Owing, probably, 

 to the advent of Bats — true flying mammals — at, possibly, a 

 comparatively early time, the marsupial was beaten in the 

 air, and so a true flying form was not evolved, though the 

 so-called "Flying Phalanger" is some distance on the way. 



As regards the other group of flying animals — birds — Australia 

 is even of greater interest, for here are found unique archaic 

 forms of life, such as the Emu, Cassowary, Mound-Builders, 

 and Lyre-Birds, and "every widely-spread family of birds but 

 two is represented; the only widely-spread families of birds 

 totally absent from Australia are Woodpeckers and Vultures." 

 Woodpeckers, however, have crossed Wallace's line into Celebes 

 and adjacent islands, and may yet reach Australia naturally. 



Further, many well-known birds, such as Pigeons, Parrots, 

 and Kingfishers, reach their highest development in the Aus- 

 tralian region, and, more important still, the whole bird world 

 seems to reach its culminating point in this wonderland. It 

 is a factor adding to the interest of Australia's fauna 

 that three of the four families placed at the head of the 

 bird world in the natural system of classification adopted 

 by ornithologists, and used by Dr. Sharpe in his just recently com- 

 pleted Hand-List of Birds, should be absolutely confined to 



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