OCEANIC FAUNA. 37 



Old "World except in the Indo-Chinese lands, which in this respect may be 

 considered a dependency of Australasia, are here represented by no less than 

 thirteen genera and over a hundred species. On the other hand, there is a total 

 absence of apes, pachyderms, and ruminants, while the carnivora, rodents, and 

 edentata are far from numerous. 



In its lower fauna Australia is no less original, its birds and lizards being quite 

 distinct from those of the Asiatic continent. New Zealand also forms a separate 

 zone, which has long been destitute of any characteristic mammals except a rat, 

 and perhaps one species of otter. On the other hand, it possessed two remarkable 

 families of birds, the aptéryx and dinornis, which, like the dodo of Mauritius, have 

 perished since the arrival of man. New Zealand had no less than fifteen species 

 of these birds, which belong to the ostrich family. 



Farther east the Polynesian islands are completely destitute of mammals, beyond 

 some small species of bats and rodents. Eeptiles are also rare ; while birds, thanks 

 to their power of flight and natation, have been distributed in considerable numbers 

 throughout the archipelagoes. In the same way man himself, passing in his light 

 outriggers bej'ond the straits and broader marine channels, has gradually colonised 

 nearly all the islands of Polynesia. 



Inhabitants of the Oceanic Regions. 



Before the arrival of the Europeans, the oceanic islanders had already estab- 

 lished communication with each other, and long migrations had taken place, in 

 one direction towards Madagascar, in the other towards the remote eastern islands 

 of the Pacific. The populations of diverse origin occupying the Eastern Archipelago, 

 who are connected either by affinity or by commercial relations M'ith the people of 

 South-east Asia, have long played the part of agents in promoting the intercourse 

 that has been maintained from one extremity of the ocean to the other. The 

 natives of Madagascar are at least partly related to the Malays of the Eastern 

 Archipelago, who have gradually spread their domain from island to island east- 

 wards, everywhere intermingling with the aborigines, or else colonising unoccupied 

 lands. Nearly all the idioms spoken throughout this vast domain, from Madagascar 

 to Easter Island, from the African to the American waters, are regarded as more or 

 less closely related members of the one great Malayo-Polynesian linguistic family. 

 Nevertheless the extreme branches of this widespread family present profound 

 differences, while from the connection must be altogether excluded all the 

 Australian and extinct Tasmanian languages, and many also current amongst the 

 Papuan and Negrito inhabitants of New Guinea, the Philippines, the Andaman, 

 Nicobar, and a few other groups. 



But while their common speech attests a general movement of migration 

 throughout the whole extent of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the marked contrast 

 in their physical appearance indicates such a great diversity of origin, that many 

 writers have grouped the oceanic populations in fundamentally distinct brown or 

 dark races. But however this be, such physical differences between the inhabitants 



