president's ADDRES8 — SECTION D. 1 1 1 



to notice that one form ( D. viverrinusj, the " native cat," is 

 found both north and south of the Divide, and spreads 

 westwards into S. Australia and northwards into New South 

 Wales, whilst the other (I), maculatus), the " tiger cat," is 

 found only south of the Divide and in the north-east part of 

 Victoria, ranging up the East Coast from Tasmania to 

 Queensland but not passing to the westwards to S. Australia 

 or W. Australia. Further, at the present time this species is 

 comparatively rare on the continent and much commoner in 

 Tasmania. A third form, D. geoffroyi, is found in Victoria, 

 but only north of the Divide and hence, as might have been 

 expected, not in Tasmania. It ranges westwards to W. 

 Australia and northwards to Queensland, being found in New 

 South Wales on the west of the Divide and not in the 

 coastal district. 



In the genus Phascologale (Antechinus) Tasmania has two 

 representatives, one confined to it and south-east Victoria f P. 

 swainsoniij, the other a peculiar species whose northern 

 limits are the islands of Bass Straits fP. minima). 



Comparing the Diprotodontia and Polyprotodontia of Tas- 

 mania, we have to notice the following points : — 



(1.) The greater proportional number both of genera and 

 species of the second as compared with the first 

 group present in the island. 



(2.) The presence of two peculiar genera of the second. 



(3.) The absence of polyprotodont forms which are 

 evidently climatic varieties of mainland forms and 

 of which four are present amongst the diprotodonts. 



The third of these seems to point to the conclusion that 

 the polyprotodonts are not so capable of variation as the 

 diprotodonts and under new conditions of environment, 

 organic or physical, either persist unchanged or else entirely 

 succumb. 



Undoubtedly the one most striking feature in the fauna of 

 Tasmania is the presence of Thylacinus and Sarcophilus and 

 their absence at the present time from the mainland, whilst 

 an almost equally noticeable feature, and one intimately 

 associated with the former, is the presence of the dingo (Canis 

 dingo) on the continent and its absence from Tasmania. 



Mr. Krefft, in his paper on the Zoology of Tasmania, 

 mentions, the dingo as being extinct, but, as pointed out by 

 Mr. Morton Allport, he had not the slightest justification for 

 this statement, there never having been produced, as yet, any 

 evidence of its existence south of Bass Straits. 



