1560 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



humming-birds of the New World: like all the 

 family to which they belong, they have the tongue 

 terminating in a brush-like bundle of very slender 

 filaments, with which they suck the nectar of flowers. 



Among the native Australian birds are a vast num- 

 ber of the parrot tribe, comprehending paroquets, 

 cockatoos, and others, many of them distinguished 

 by the most beautiful plumage. Of birds of prey, 

 eagles, falcons, and hawks are numerous, as well as 

 several owls. The largest among the feathered tribes 

 of Australia is the emu, or cassowary a bird of the 

 ostrich kind, though of rather inferior size to the 

 African ostrich. It is found chiefly in the southern 

 portions of the continent, but is yearly becoming 

 scarcer under the advance of the settlers.* 



The scattered islands of the Pacific which, under 

 the name of Polynesia, constitute, in modern geogra- 

 phy, one of the divisions of the globe, can hardly 

 be regarded as a distinct zoological region, so ob- 

 viously has their animal life been derived from other 

 lands. When first visited by European navigators, 

 little more than a century since, the largest quad- 

 ruped found in the Polynesian groups was the hog, 

 which had probably accompanied the tribes of man- 

 kind by whom they were peopled. The only other 

 land animals were the dog, mouse, and lizard, with 



* The emu and cassowary, though in common language re- 

 ferred to as identical, are specifically distinct. Of the casso- 

 wary, properly so called, three distinct species are now known 

 one of them an inhabitant of the Australian mainland, in the 

 neighborhood of Cape York, a second native to New Guinea, 

 and a third inhabiting the island of New Britain. 



