Notices of New Books. 4977 



that there is no paragraph, either preceding or following, to qualify or 

 modify its comprehensive scope and meaning. This brief passage con- 

 tains two great and hackneyed mistakes: first, Marsupials are not 

 peculiar to Australia and America ; secondly, " all the quadrupeds, 

 with one or two exceptions," are not constructed on the marsupial 

 type. Let us take these propositions in order. First, the Eastern 

 Archipelago should have been added to the geographical range of the 

 Marsupials. The genus Cuscus, or that portion of the family Pha- 

 langistidae which has the tip of the tail naked and warty, occurs in 

 Celebes, Amboyna, Banda, Waigiou, Timor, New Guinea and New 

 Ireland, but never in Australia or America. That infinitesimal portion 

 of New Guinea which has been explored, and explored in the most 

 hasty and incomplete manner, produces seven marsupials, only one of 

 which occurs in Australia; so that the proposed geographical restriction 

 of marsupials is fallacious. Now, about the quadrupeds of Australia 

 being altogether Marsupial : this often-repeated error has been as often 

 satisfactorily pointed out and corrected : the Cheiroptera and Glires 

 should have been excepted. I find the following passage in a journal, 

 the Natural History of which is in general carefully compiled : — " The 

 marsupials are peculiar to America and Australia : in Australia, if we 

 except the dog, which has probably been introduced by man, all the 

 Mammalia are marsupial." I well knew this passage was erroneous, 

 and, as a matter of course, I knew it was not original ; still, believing 

 it the text of Mr. Jones's commentary, I determined to trace it to its 

 source. I find that Mr. Waterhouse is the authority, and there is none 

 higher ; but the passage in question has unfortunately had its brains 

 knocked out by the gentlemen who have borrowed it : here it is : — 

 * Cheiroptera are not represented by any known marsupial animals, 

 and the Rodents are represented by a single species only ; the hiatus 

 is filled up, in both cases, by placental species, for both Bats and 

 Rodents are tolerably numerous in Australia, and if we except the 

 dog, which it is probable has been introduced by man, these are the 

 only placental Mammalia found on that continent." The italicised 

 portion has been omitted in every citation of this passage that has 

 come under ray notice, and the inference is I think fair that Mr. Jones 

 has been misled by one or other of the copyers, and that he is not 

 aware that at that early period truly native placentals were known to 

 be tolerably, and are now known to be very, numerous in Australia. 

 It may be said that the geographical distribution of animals is not the 

 province of the anatomist, but, if so, the subject should have been 

 avoided altogether, not treated erroneously. 



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