34 The Vertebrata of Tasmania. 



teeth, but little difference, (except in size,) is observable in Tas- 

 manian specimens when compared with continental ones. Com- 

 paring the fauna of Tasmania with that of the Australian mainland, 

 we arrive at the following result. 



The Dingo is extinct, — the Seals and Whales are the same as 

 on our own coast. The insect fauna of the island not being very 

 rich, there are but few insect-feeding bats, three species only 

 are known to our twenty or more Cheiroptera. For similar reasons 

 (the absence of indigenous fruits) no Flying-foxes occur, though 

 if these marauders once found out the richness of Tasmanian 

 plantations, they would soon wing their way across the Straits. 



The peculiar Australian Rodent, the Water-rat, or Beaver-rat, 

 is represented by a single species to five on the mainland. Some 

 four or five and twenty other rats and mice are known to 

 inhabit Australia, and only one kind Tasmania. The marsupial 

 order is richer, but here again many species common to our 

 south coast are missing. There are but three Halmaturi, 

 while some forty species inhabit the continent. 



Our tenor twelve "Kangaroo-Eats" and " Belongs," have 

 two representatives in Tasmania, both of which, curious to say, 

 resemble in a most remarkable degree two West Australian 

 species, so much so, that the one can only be distinguished. from 

 the other by a close comparison of their skeletons. 



One would naturally conclude that a mountainous island like 

 Tasmania, would be the very paradise of " Rock-Wallabies," but 

 none are found there. The absence of the "Koala," or Native 

 Bear, and of all the species of " Flying Phalangers," common 

 in Victoria, is also unaccountable, the more so as the allied 

 " Phalangers," better known as " Brush and Ring-tail Opossums," 

 which subsist on similar food and live in the same forests, thrive 

 Avell, and attain a great size in that Island. 



The small marsupial insectivora allied to the genera Podalrus 

 and Antechinus, are represented in the latter by a single species, 

 though probably a second kind exists, as I received a new form 

 from one of the islands of Bass' Straits not long ago, which is 

 perhaps also found in Tasmania. 



The predominance of the large carnivora over all other animals, 

 is most likely the cause of so limited a number of species ; it is 

 highly probable that many more kinds of Kangaroos once existed, 

 and that they have been exterminated by the ferocious " Tigers " 

 and " Devils " still plentiful in some of the wild districts ; if so, 

 their remains will tell whenever the bone-caverns are explored. 



The monotremous section of the Implacentalia is represented 

 as in Australia, by the well known Platypus, and by an Echidna 

 or Ant-eater which appears to differ from our own in nothing but 

 the shorter spines and more hairy fur. 



