THE AUSTRALIAN REGION 33 



cosmopolitan Mas. or true Mouse, numbers no less than 

 eighteen species in Australia. The habits of the Water- 

 voles of Europe are assumed by the species of the genus 

 Hydromy8 } which are modified for aquatic life, while the 

 species of Hapalotis are found chiefly in the dry sandy 

 scrubs. 



The Bats, with one exception, all belong to genera of 

 considerably wide distribution, and the number of species 

 known to inhabit Australia is not very great. Thirty only 

 are described in Dr. Dobson's catalogue of the Bats as 

 Australian. Pteropus, the great genus of Fruit-eating Bats, 

 is represented by a few species ; so too are the widespread 

 insectivorous genera Vesperugo and Miniopterus. One 

 species of the former genus, the Southern Pipistrelle 

 ( V. abramus), is found almost throughout the Old World, 

 from Sweden to North Australia. 



Section V. — Analysis of the Austral 

 Mammal-fauna 



The full list of the Mammalian Fauna of the Austral 

 Sub-region contains the names of about 169 species, refer- 

 able to fifty-nine genera. Of these genera twenty-nine, 

 just half, are not found outside the Austral Sub-region, 

 the greater number of them (twenty-five) being Mar- 

 supials ; they include, however, three genera of Mice 

 (Xeromys, Hapalotis, and Mastacomys) and one peculiar 

 Bat (Rhinonycteris). Thirteen genera are confined to the 

 Australian Region, that is, are found in the Papuan Sub- 

 regioD as well as in the Austral Sub-region; of these, 

 ;t'_rain, the majority are Marsupials, besides which there 



