FAUNA r, REGIONS OF AUSTRALIA. 445 



populations, wheie Professor Tate lias located one — the Eurono- 

 tian. This title, I propose, should be reserved for that fauna 

 and flora characteristic of Tasmania, Victoria, and southern New 

 South Wales ; while the second and very distinct fauna and flora 

 develoijed on the coasts of Queensland and northern New South 

 Wales would best be described as Papuan. Indeed, so distinct is 

 this latter, that a separation of Australiair life into Papuan and 

 non-Papuan seems to the writer to be the primary divisions into 

 which fall the Australian fauna and flora. 



The types encoimtered by a traveller in tropical Queensland, or 

 rather in that narrow belt of tropical Queensland hemmed in 

 between the Cordillera and the Pacific, all wear a foreij^n aspect. 

 Among mammals may be instanced the cuscus and tree kangaroo; 

 among reptiles, the crocodile, the Rana or true frog, and the tree 

 snake "^ ; among birds, the cassowary and rifle birds; among butter- 

 flii-s, the Omithoptera ; among plants, the wild banana, orange 

 and mangosteen, the rhododendron, the epiphytic orchids, and the 

 palms; so that, in the heart of a great Queensland "scrub," a 

 naturalist could scarcely answer, from his surroundings, whether 

 he were in New Guinea or Australia. It may be supposed that 

 late in the Tertiary epoch Torres Straits, now only a few fathoms 

 deep, was upheaved, and that a stream of Papuan life poured into 

 Australia across the bridge so made. 



Sharply defined from the tiopical jungle above mentioned are 

 areas occupied by strictly Australian vegetation, which are left 

 invariably^ in possession of the poorest tracts of land. Yvom the 

 rich lands, formerly no doubt posses.-ed by them, everywhere have 

 they been ousted by the invading flora. 



Regarding the origin of the Euronotian fauna and flora, sundry 

 facts collected by Mr. H. O. Forbes, in his paper on the Chatham 

 Islands, would suggest a South American source. Assuming that, 

 in or before the Miocene, contiimous land extended from Tierra del 

 Fuego to Tasmania, the derivation of the Australian marsupials 

 appearing in the Pliocene from their South American allies 

 Prothylacinus and Amphiproviverra of the Eocene would be clear. 

 Mr. Forbes adduces strong confirmatory evidence from Professor 

 Parker, who on embryological grounds does not hesitate to assume 

 as ancestors of certain Australian crows a form allied to the 

 American Dendrocalaptine birds. Tlie distribution of the parrots 

 and the cystignathous frogs appear also to sustain the theory. 

 The extinct alligator, PaUimnarchus, found in Queensland and 

 New South Wales, associated with Diprotodun, strengthens the 

 chain of evidence, as does the occurrence in Tasmania and South 

 Australia of Gundlachia, otherwise exclusively an American 

 moUusk. 



As the name implies, the AutochtJionian is the oldest member 

 of the Australian faunas and floras. The date of its arrival in 

 Australia and the route which it traversed are lost in antiquity. 



