PHYSIOGRAPHY OF AUSTR. I I.ASIA. 



1361 



"Burnett Salmon," occurring in the Dawson, Mary and llurnett Rivers of Queensland; its 

 only near living relatives are the mud-fishes of Africa and South America. The fresh-water 

 fishes present few points worthy of note, except, perhaps, the almost complete abvm-e, among 

 indigenous fishes, of representatives of the family to which the salmon and trout belong, the 

 entire absence of the carp tribe, the occurrence of one peculiar family, the Haiiopxidic, and 

 the presence of two families having a remarkable distribution the OsteoglossicUe, or so-called 

 Barramundis, which are found in Queensland, and also in some islands of the Malay 

 Archipelago, in South America, and in Africa, and the (ialaxiadfc, or mountain-trout, which 

 are found in South America (in the rivers of Terra del Fuego and Chili), and in New 

 Zealand, as well as in Australia. 

 The most marked characteristics 

 of the fauna of New Zealand, as com- 

 pared with that of Australia, are the 

 entire absence of marsupials and ino- 

 notremcs, and in fact of all mammals 

 with the exception of two bats ; the 

 comparative fewness of the reptiles 

 and Amphibia ; and the total absence 

 of three orders (snakes, tortoises 

 and crocodiles), well represented in 

 Australia; the fewness of the fresh- 

 water fishes ; the comparative scan- 

 tiness of the insect fauna ; and the 

 presence of certain peculiar genera 

 of birds. Of the peculiar New Zea- 

 land birds the most remarkable is 

 the Kiwi (Apteryx), of which there 

 are two species, birds of about the 

 size of an ordinary barn-door fowl, 

 or sometimes somewhat larger, de- 

 void, as far as external appearances 

 go, of any trace of wings, the body 

 covered with long and narrow and 

 almost hair-like feathers, the head 

 terminating in a long, curved beak, 

 and with a pair of short strong legs. 



The Kiwis form a family by themselves, their nearest allies, though still very re- 

 mote, being the cassowaries and emus. Very large ostrich-like birds the Moas were 

 numerous in New Zealand until a comparatively recent period, though apparently 

 entirely extinct long before the white man arrived. There are, in the Christchurch 

 Museum, many specimens of the Moa (Dinornis nia.vinnis), two of which, over twelve 

 feet in height, are really magnificent. There are besides, a number of specimens of 

 various sizes, ranging from that of a small cassowary to that of a camelopard. That 

 Moas were at one time largely distributed in New Zealand may be gathered from the 



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