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V. Notice of certain Australian Quadrupeds, belonging to the Order Rodentia. 

 By W. Ogilby, Esq., M.A., F.R.A.S., F.L.S., ^c. 



Read December 5th, 1837. 



X HE anomalous nature of the indigenous quadrupeds of Australia, the almost 

 exclusive predominance of the Marsupial family in that singular country, and 

 its extreme poverty in the ordinary Monadelphine groups of Mammals, is one 

 of the most curious and interesting facts in modern zoology. Setting aside 

 the bats, which their physical structure renders in a great measure independent 

 of local boundaries, and the Seals and Cetacea, which, from the very nature of 

 the element they inhabit, are circumscribed in their geographical range by 

 none of those insuperable restrictions which limit the distribution of ordinary 

 quadrupeds, I am acquainted with only six or seven species of terrestrial 

 Mammals, out of at least sixty already known to inhabit the continent of 

 Australia and its immediate dependencies, which do not belong to Marsupial 

 forms. This fact is in itself sufficiently singular; but our surprise is still 

 further excited when we learn, that, of these six or seven exceptions, all the 

 truly indigenous species belong exclusively to the order Rodentia, and that the 

 numerous tribes of Quadrumana, Camivora, Edentata, Pachydermata, and 

 Ruminantia are absolutely without any known representatives in that exten- 

 sive quarter of the globe. Such at least is the result to which our present 

 knowledge of Australian mammalogy conducts us ; for, I think, that there 

 are strong grounds for believing that the Dingo, or native dog, the only soli- 

 tary exception which can be adduced against the universality of this position, 

 is not an aboriginal inhabitant of the continent, but a subsequent importation, 

 in all probability contemporary with the primitive settlement of the natives. 

 Many circumstances might be advanced in support of this opinion ; the sim- 

 ple fact of his anomaly is itself a strong corroboration of it ; and his absence 



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