THE AUSTIJALIAX MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



65 



Australian Mammals 

 and why they should be protected. 



By Dr. W. K. Gregory. 



[Dr. Gregory, who is Curator of Com- 

 parative Anatomy in the American 

 Museum of Natural History, and As- 

 sociate Professor of Palaeontology in 

 Columbia University. New York, came to 

 Australia this year, accompanied by Mr. 

 H. C. Raven, in order to obtain by ex- 

 change and field collecting a typical 

 series of Australian mammals, to be dis- 

 played in the projected Australian Hall 



The preservation of animals may be 

 urged because of their beauty, their 

 scientific interest, or their utility, aud 

 there are few indeed which have not 

 some claim to protection on one or other 

 of these counts. I shall not deal with 

 Australian mammals as regards their 

 economic importance, although a plea 

 might well be advanced for their pro- 

 tection on that ground. An enormous 

 number of marsupial skins are marketed 

 every year in Europe and America; at 

 one sale in St. Louis, the great fur mart 

 of the United States, half a million skins 

 of Australian 'possums were offered, and 

 the Queensland Minister for Agriculture 

 has said that in 1919-1920 no fewer than 

 five and a quarter million 'possums and 

 a million native bears were slaughtered 

 in Queensland. If this slaughter con- 

 tinues these poor animals will be exter- 

 minated. Of course, there are other fac- 

 tors which are partly responsible for the 

 depletion of the indigenous fauna of 

 Australia, for foxes, bush fires, and 

 poisoned baits are all doing their deadly 

 work. This appalling waste is neither 

 necessary nor inevitable if proper means 

 are taken to prevent it. There is a say- 

 ing that "You cannot eat your cake and 

 have it too," but, in the ease of a timber 

 forest or a country full of fur-bearing 

 animals, you can in a sense do both; 

 you can draw your annual tribute of 

 timber or of furs and yet preserve the 

 trees and animals fur future generations. 

 The annual value of the furs procured 

 from the wild animals of Australia is 

 very considerable, but, if the animals 

 are reduced in numbers almost to the 

 vanishing point, no more income can 

 be derived from that source. 



of the American Museum. Acting on 

 instructions from President H. F. Os- 

 born. Dr. Gregory lost no opportunity of 

 impressing upon Australians the neces- 

 sity for protecting their unique and fast 

 disappearing mammalian fauna, and, 

 with this object in view, be delivered a 

 iecture at the Australian Museum, the 

 substance of which is reproduced in this 

 article.] 



P>ut my main object is to sho-yv' why 

 these animals are worthy of protection 

 from a scientific point of view, and to 

 do this it is necessary to discuss some 

 of the outstanding characteristics of the 

 Australian mammalian fauna. 



IManunals, in general, that is the four- 

 footed animals which are covered with 

 hair and suckle their young, are divided 

 into three groups, the Monotremes, the 

 Marsupials and the Placentals; the 

 placentals, such as the dog, horse, and 

 ape, form the largest group of existing 

 mammals, and everyone is familiar with 

 their principal features. They are the 

 characteristic mammals of extra-Aus- 

 tralian lands, but, with the exception of 

 stragglers like the dingo, a few bats, 

 rats and mice, no placental mammals 

 are native to Australia. 



THE MOXOTKEMES. 



These are entirely confined to Austra- 

 lia and New Guinea, where they are re- 

 presented by the duck-billed platypus or 

 Ornitliorhijnchus and spiny anteaters or 

 echidnas. These are the onlv mammals 



The Echidna or Native Porcupine is able to 



burrow rapidly and so hide from its enemies. 



With the Platypus it forms the most primitive 



group of mammals extant. 



Photo. — .G. C. (luttoii. 



