THE AUSTRALIAN RE<;i<>X 37 



Section VII.— The Papuan Sub-region 



In contrast to Australia, the great island of New 

 Guinea, or Papua, is traversed throughout by mountains 

 of high altitude. The rivers rising in these ranges, aided 

 by the suns of the tropics, produce a luxuriant vegetation, 

 and such a country as we should suppose would be espe- 

 cially favourable to mammal-life. Yet mammals are by 

 no means abundant in New Guinea and in the adjacent 

 islands which constitute the Papuan Sub-region. As is 

 the case in Australia, the greater number of the in- 

 digenous animals of New Guinea and the neighbouring 

 islands consist of Monotremes, Marsupials, and Rodents, 

 together with a certain number of the cosmopolitan 

 order of Bats (8, 10,11). 



Of the Monotremes, two species have been met with in 

 New Guinea, both of them belonging to the family of 

 Echidnas above referred to. Of these one species, only at 

 present known from the south of New Guinea, is but a 

 slightly modified form of the small Australian Echidna. 

 But in the mountains, in various parts of New Guinea, has 

 been lately discovered a larger representative of the same 

 family (Proechidna), which, moreover, differs from the 

 typical form in having only three toes on its fore limbs, 

 and in other particulars (Fig. 6, p. 38). 



The Papuan Marsupials, as yet discovered, are about 

 thirty-three in number, and embrace representatives of the 

 Dasyures, Bandicoots, Phalangers, and Kangaroos, which 

 are also characteristic families of the Australian mammal- 

 fauna. 



There are only two genera of Marsupials peculiar to the 



