AUSTRALIAN PROVINCE.— PECULIARITIES. 115 
beyond the geographic limits of the monkey tribe. The 
same paucity of quadrupeds has been remarked in New 
Guinea ; for although no correct inferences can be drawn 
from the partial gleanings yet made on the coast, yet, 
if the interior was inhabited by quadrupeds of any size, 
it is natural to suppose they would have been mentioned, 
or alluded to, by the natives, in some way or other: but 
neither rumour nor tradition assigns any remarkable qua- 
drupeds to New Guinea; while the largest, mentioned 
in the recent French discoveries, is a peculiar sort of 
pig. So far, therefore, we observe a strong indication 
of the chief peculiarity in Australian zoology ; namely, 
the total absence of large quadrupeds: so that to place 
New Guinea in the same zoological group with Sumatra 
and Java,—two islands abounding in apes, elephants, 
and all the large ferine inhabitants of India, — would 
be manifestly erroneous. We shall subsequently illus- 
trate this disposition by proofs drawn from the orni- 
thology of these islands. 
(164.) That the southern extremity of Africa contains 
some animals approximating to those of New Holland has 
been already mentioned ; and this approximation is the 
more remarkable, since the distance between the two 
nearest points of these continents is very great. In 
what manner the Australian fauna may disappear through 
the islands of the Pacific Ocean, we have no present 
means of judging. Whether, therefore, it unites again 
with the European, or, what is more probable, with the 
American range, by means of the small islands approxi- 
mating to California, are questions for future naturalists 
to determine. 
(165.) The most distinguishing peculiarities of the 
Australian province are now to be considered. The great- 
est, undoubtedly, is the total absence of large quadrupeds, 
and the paucity of the smaller: these latter, also, are so 
remarkable in their structure, as to appear almost ano- 
malous. Australia has been termed the land of con- 
trarieties: as if nature, in creating the forms intended 
for this region, had departed altogether from those rules 
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