52 AUSTRALIA 
great abundance and of excellent quality. ‘The vine, the 
olive and the mulberry thrive well, and quantities of wine 
are now produced. The cereals of Kurope and maize are 
extensively cultivated, and large tracts of country, particu- 
larly in Queensland, are devoted to sugar cane cultivation. 
The Australian fauna is almost unique in its character. 
The great feature is the total absence of all the forms of 
mammalia which abound in the rest of the world, their 
place being supplied by a great variety of marsupials—these 
animals being as a rule found nowhere else except the 
opossums of America. There are about 100 kinds of mar- 
supials of which the kangaroo, wallabies, wombat, koola, 
bandicot, phalangers, opossums, and the fierce carniverous 
dasyures are the best known varieties. ‘Two extraordinary 
animals—the platypus, or water mole, and the porcupine 
ant eater—constitute the lowest order of mammals. 
A large stock of the domestic animals of Eugland have 
been, however, introduced, and they thrive remarkably 
well. The breed of horses is excellent. Horned cattle and 
sheep are raised very extensively, particularly the latter. 
Rabbits have long been a pest, but their frozen bodies are 
now being shipped very extensively to other countries. 
The birds are numerous and of great variety, all the more 
important orders and families being represented. Eagles, 
some very large, measuring about seven feet across the 
wings ; falcons and various species of hawks and owls, are 
numerous ; and so also are parrots and cockatoos, many of 
them having most beautiful plumage. Pigeons of various 
species frequent various parts of the island. The largest 
Australian bird is the emu, which, though excelled in size 
by the ostrich, attains a height sometimes of more than 
seven feet, five and six being the average. It is widely 
diffused and is rapidly disappearing from the more settled 
districts. The lyre bird, with its magnificent lyre-shaped 
tail; the interesting bower birds and the mound building 
talegalla and megapodius are natives of this land of peculiar 
natural productions. The gigantic jabiru stork may be 
