THE VICTOEIAX XATURALIST. 95 



the warmtli of her body, and gives her young milk which is secreted 

 from the milk glands in the pouch. 



The following are extracts from an article by Mr. M'Cooey, 

 " Interesting Truths of Australian Natural History," which 

 appeared in a recent issue of the Toicn and Countrii Journal : — 

 '■ The presence of the native dog among the marsupials of Aus- 

 tralia is quite an anomaly. Apparently it is a variety of the 

 domestic dog [Canis domesticus), and though the evidence on this 

 point is not quite complete, it is highly probable that the dingo 

 made its advent in Australia at, geologically speaking, a com- 

 paratively recent date. All who have argued that the dingo is 

 indigenous have been stopped by the logic of Professor 

 Owen. The lesson of geology is irresistible. No branch of 

 natural science is, perhaps, more interesting than that which 

 embraces fossils and extinct remains, and no branch is more 

 instructive. It is through the aid of the irresistible logic that 

 geology lends to science that we are enabled to say that the dingo 

 is not indigenous. The bones of the dingo have been found on 

 or near the earth's surface, but never in cement along with those 

 of such giants of the past as the Thi/lacoleo, the Diprotodon, 

 or Macropu^ titan, therefore it is safe to affirm that it is not indi- 

 genous." 



"It is a singular fact, and one deserving of much attention, that 

 this admixture of the bird faunas of this and other countries is not 

 only observable among extant birds, but also among those that 

 are extinct. That gigantic bird, the moa, formerly an inhabi- 

 tant of New Zealand, finds fossil representatives in South 

 America, in South Africa, and in Australia. The emu of 

 to-day is but a dwarf compared with the emu of the past. 

 The remains found in South Australia by the Rev. J. E. Tenison- 

 Woods in 1865 proves this. Since 1865 similar remains have been 

 found, in other places in AustraUa, proving, beyond doubt, the 

 former existence of a gigantic emu, to which Professor Owen has 

 given the name of Dromornis Aiistralis. The presence of extinct 

 and extant wingless birds in New Zealand and Australia corres- 

 ponding with, and closely allied to, the African ostrich and South 

 American Bhea, differing from all other birds in the structure of the 

 skeleton, while agreeing with each other, and all making near 

 approach to reptiles in anatomy, is a fact so scientifically important 

 and remarkable as to incline many eminent naturalists to the belief 

 that all these countries were at one time connected by land, and 

 formed a vast southern continent. Wingless birds in New Zealand 

 seem to have been far more plentiful and far larger than on the 

 continent of Australia. In 1839 a Mr. Rule took tu England a 

 part of the thigh-bone of a moa, from which Mr. (now Professor) 



