114 ON THE GEOGRAPHT OF ANIMALS. 



CHAP. VI. 



ON THE AUSTRALIAN PROVINCE. 



ITS CONNECTION WITH THAT OF ASIA. DISTINGUISHING FEA- 

 TURES. QUADRUPEDS. BIRDS. ITS THREE CHIEF DIVI- 

 SIONS NEW GUINEA, NEW HOLLAND, AND THE PACIFIC 



ISLANDS. GENERA OF QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS BELONGING 



THERETO. 



(162.) The extent and limits of the last zoological 

 province have been already intimated. In naming 

 this the Australian, we not only include the vast 

 island of New Holland, and those immediately adjoin- 

 ing, as New Guinea, New Zealand, and Van Diemen's 

 Land, but likewise the whole of the oceanic clusters 

 forming the Polynesian division of some geographers. 

 Our first object will be, to show in what manner this 

 extensive zoological range is connected with others ; our 

 next will be, to detail its most striking peculiarities, or 

 those prominent features presented in its animal forms, 

 by which it is manifestly separated from all those we 

 have already illustrated. 



(163.) The first indication of Australian zoology ap- 

 pears to take place in some of the Asiatic islands, to the 

 north-west of New Guinea ; for it is there that the Mel- 

 liphagous family, or honey-sucking birds, appear under 

 the forms of the genera Diceum wnA Arachnotheres ; both 

 of which occur in Java. Unfortunately, we cannot 

 trace the progressive developement of this change, since 

 the animals of Timor and the string of smaller islands 

 intervening between Java and New Guinea have not 

 been sufficiently investigated. It is, however, worthy 

 of remark, that, among the few quadrupeds of Timor 

 discovered by the French voyagers, there is not one of 

 a large size ; so that this island may be supposed to he 



