370 



botli subject to tlie east and west monsoons, botli 

 everywhere covered witli lofty i'oreat; botli have a graat 

 extent ot' fiat, swampy coast and a mountainoLis inte- 

 rior; botli are ricli in Pahns and Pandanaceae. Il", on 

 the other hand, we corapare Australia with A^ew Guinea, 

 we can scarcely nnd a stronger contrast than in their phy- 

 sical conditions : the one near the equator, the other iiear 

 and beyond the tropics; the one enjoying perpetual mois- 

 ture, the other with alternations ofexcessive drought; the 

 one a vast ever-verdant forest, the other dry open woods, 

 downs, or deserts. Yet the faunas of the two, though 

 mostly distinct in species , are strikingly similar in charac- 

 ter. Every Family oi" birds (except 31 enuridae) found in 

 Australia also inhabits New Guinea, while all those stri- 

 king deficiencies of the latter exist equally in the former. 

 But a considerable proportion of the characteristic Aus- 

 tralian genera are also found in New Guinea, and, when 

 that country is better known it is to be supposed that the 

 nuniber will be increased. In the Mammalia it is the sa- 

 me. Marsupials are almost the only quadrupeds in the one 

 as in the other. If kangaroos are especially adapted to the 

 dry plains and open woods of Australia, there raust be 

 soaie other reason Tor their introduction into the dense 

 damp forests of New Guinea, and we can hardly iniagine 

 that the great variety of monkeys, of squirrels, of 

 Insectivora, and of Eelidae, were created in Borneo 

 because the country was adapted to them, and not 

 one single species given to another country exactly si- 

 milar, and at iio great distance. If there is any rea- 

 son in the hardness of the woods or the scarcity of 

 ■wood-boring insects, why woodpeckers should be ab- 

 sent from Australia, there is none why they should 



