A US TRALASIA ILL US TRA TED. 





I 



spiny ant-eaters found in Australia and Tasmania, there is another species found in New 

 Guinea, and there occurs also in this Island a distinct and peculiar genus of spiny ant-eater 

 (AeantkogfossHS) which differs from its Australian relative, among other points, in the great 

 length of its " bill," and the reduction of the number of the toes to three in each foot. 



The bird fauna of Australia is characterized, not only by the presence of some 

 peculiar families not found in other regions, or represented only by one or two stray 



species, and by the total 

 absence of certain families 

 generally distributed else- 

 where, but in all the 

 great regions of the 

 earth's surface. The 

 families peculiar to the 

 Australian region 

 having, however, in 

 some cases stray repre- 

 sentatives elsewhere, also 

 by the very special de- 

 velopment of certain fami- 

 lies that occur are the 

 Cacatuidce or cockatoos, 

 the Trichoglossidee or 

 brush-tongued lories, the 

 Platyccrcidcc or broad- 

 tailed parrakeets, the 

 ParetdiseidcB or birds of 

 paradise, the Meliphagidee 

 or honey-eaters, the Mc- 

 nnridcc or lyre-birds, the 

 . \tricliid(C or scrub-birds, 

 the Mcgapodiidcc or 

 mound-birds ( " scrub-tur- 

 keys " and "brush- turkeys "), and the Casuaridce, comprising cassowaries and emus. 

 The cockatoos are a well-known family of birds of the parrot order, comprising a 

 considerable number of species, most of which are natives of Australia. The brush- 

 tongued lories are honey-eating parrots, with brush-like tips to their tongues, by which 

 they extract the honey from the flowers of eucalypts and other trees and shrubs ; they 

 have, like the cockatoos, their head-quarters in Australia, but are represented in some of 

 the islands of the Malay Archipelago. The broad-tailed parrakeets, comprising the 

 familiar " Rosellas" among others, have a similar range. The birds of paradise, distin- 

 guished by the richness and gorgeousness of their plumage, are specially characteristic 

 of New Guinea and the neighbouring islands, and are represented in Australia by the 

 rifle-birds, the regent-birds, the manucodes, and by that remarkable and interesting group, 

 the bower-birds. The honey-eaters are, in most parts of Australia, the most numerous 



THE REGENT BIRD. 



