INTRODUCTION. 



In the foregoing Preface I have glanced at the principal groups 

 of Mammals inhabiting the great country of Australia. It will 

 now, however, be necessary to enter into greater detail respecting 

 this division of its fauna; and I conceive that it will not be out 

 of place if I commence with a retrospective view of the gradual 

 discovery of countries and their zoological productions from the 

 earliest historic times. Such a retrospect will not, I think, be 

 deemed unnecessary, especially since my intention is to show to 

 the general reader, rather than to the scientific naturalist, that 

 each great division of the globe has its own peculiar forms of 

 animal life, and that the fauna of Australia is widely different 

 from that of every other part of the world. By a mere glance 

 at the zoological features of the globe as at present existing, it 

 will be perceived with what precision the animal life of each 

 country has been adapted to its physical character ; the absence 

 of certain great families of birds and quadrupeds in some 

 coimtries will also be apparent. To account for this on any 

 scientific principle would be very difficult, when we cannot say 

 why the Nightingale is not a summer visitant to Devonshire, 

 or why the Grouse is not found south of Wales; why the aerial 

 Swifts, Swallows, and Martins are numerous in Australia, and 

 absent in New Zealand ; or why Woodpeckers, which occur in 

 nearly every other part of the globe, are not found in Australia, 

 New Guinea, or any of the Polynesian Islands. 



B 



