95 



A colder climate always modifies species more or less, and 

 we find the Mammals of Tasmania generally more robust, of 

 larger size, and provided with thicker and darker fur, than 

 those inhabiting New Holland. In the structure, however, of 

 the skull and teeth, but little difference (except in size), is ob- 

 servable in Tasmanian specimens when compared with 

 continental ones. Comparing the fauna of Tasmania with 

 that of the Australian mainland, we arrive at the following 

 result 



The Dingo is extinct, — the Seals and Whales are the same 

 as on our own coast. The insect fauna of the island not being 

 very rich, there are but few insect-feeding bats, three species 

 only are known to our twenty or more Cheiroptera. For 

 similar reasons (the absence of indigenous fruits) no Flying- 

 foxes occur, though if these marauders once found out the 

 richness of Tasmanian plantations, they would soon wing their 

 way across the Straits. 



The peculiar Australian Rodent, the "Water-rat, or Beaver- 

 rat, is represented by a single species to five on the mainland. 

 Some four or five and twenty other rats and mice are known 

 to inhabit Australia, and only one kind Tasmania. The mar- 

 supial order is richer, but here again many species common to 

 our south coast are missing. There are but three Salmaturi, 

 while some forty species inhabit the continent. 



Our ten or twelve " Kangaroo-Rats" and " Bettongs," have 

 two representatives in Tasmania, both of which, curious to say, 

 resemble in a most remarkable degree two West Australian 

 species, so much so, that the one can only be distinguished 

 from the other by a close comparison of their skeletons. 



One would naturally conclude that a mountainous island 

 like Tasmania, would be the very paradise of " Rock- 

 Wallabies," but none are found there. The absence of the 

 "Koala," or Native Bear, and of all the species of " Flying 

 Phalangers," common in Victoria, is also unaccountable, the 

 more so as the allied " Phalangers," better known as " Brush 

 and Ring-tail OjDOSsums," which subsist on similar food and 

 live in the same forests, thrive well, and attain a great size in 

 that Island. 



The small marsupial insectivora allied to the genera 

 Podabrus and Ant echinus, are represented in the latter by a 

 single species, though probably a second kind exists, as I received 

 a new form from one of the islands of Bass's Straits, not long 

 ago, which is perhaps also found in Tasmania. 



The predominance of the large carnivora over all other ani- 

 mals, is most likely the cause of so limited a number of 



