114 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 
CHA PAV: 
ON THE AUSTRALIAN PROVINCE. 
ITS CONNECTION WITH THAT OF ASIA. — DISTINGUISHING FEA- 
TURES. — QUADRUPEDS. — BIRDS. —ITS THREE CHIEF DIVI- 
SIONS — NEW GUINEA, NEW HOLLAND, AND THE PACIFIC 
ISLANDS. — GENERA OF QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS BELONGING 
THERETO. 
(162.) Tur extent and limits of the last zoological 
province have been already intimated. In naming 
this the AusTRALIAN, we not only include the vast 
island of New Holland, and those immediately adjoin- 
ing, as New Guinea, New Zealand, and Van Diemen’s 
Land, but likewise the whole of the oceanic clusters 
forming the Polynesian division of some geographers. 
Our first object will be, to show in what manner this 
extensive zoological range is connected with others ; ovr 
next will be, to detail its most striking peculiarities, or 
those prominent features presented in its animal forms, 
by which it is manifestly separated from all those we 
have already illustrated. 
(163.) The first indication of Australian zoology ap- 
pears to take place in some of the Asiatic islands, to the 
north-west of New Guinea ; for itis there that the Mel- 
liphagous family, or honey-sucking birds, appear under 
the forms of the genera Diceum and Arachnotheres ; both 
of which occur in Java. Unfortunately, we cannot 
trace the progressive developement of this change, since 
the animals of Timor and the string of smaller islands 
intervening between Java and New Guinea have not 
been sufficiently investigated. It is, however, worthy 
of remark, that, among the few quadrupeds of Timor 
discovered by the French voyagers, there is not one of 
a large size; so that this island may be supposed to lie 
