224 ZOOGEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS 



habitat, and showing curious adaptive resemblances 

 to the placentals. An interesting form, discovered not 

 many years ago, is the marsupial mole (Notoryctes), 

 with a curiously close resemblance to the typical mole 

 of the Old World. 



The birds of the region are interesting and pecuhar. 

 There are no true finches, no woodpeckers, no pheasants, 

 and no vultures. New Guinea is especially remarkable 

 for its beautiful birds of paradise, represented on the 

 mainland chiefly by the bower-birds. Mound-turkeys 

 and lyre-birds occur both on the mainland and in the 

 islands, and the parrots are exceedingly numerous and 

 very characteristic, while the related cockatoos are 

 almost pecuhar. New Zealand, with many peculiar 

 birds, has some remarkable parrots, notably Nestor, 

 which has become carnivorous, preying upon sheep, 

 and the nocturnal owl parrot (Stringops) with a degene- 

 rate keel on its sternum, and but httle power of flight. 

 Pigeons are also very abundant, and include the most 

 brightly coloured members of the order. The honey- 

 eaters (Mehphagidae) are peculiar to the region. 



Very striking also are the Running birds. New 

 Zealand has the curious httle Apteryx, as well as the 

 extinct moa (Dinomis), Austraha the emu and casso- 

 wary. 



The reptilian fauna is less peculiar, but New Zealand 

 has a very primitive lizard (Hatteria, p. 228) and no 

 snakes . Queensland and New Guinea share with America 

 an abtmdance of tree-frogs of the family Hyhdae. The 

 type genus Hyla occurs aU over Australia, and the 

 presence of many members of the family in the Austra- 

 lian continent is the more remarkable in view of its 

 complete absence from Africa and India (cf. p. 118). 



The fish fauna of the streams and lakes is somewhat 



