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Characteristic Australian Animals. — The Australian 

 realm has been called a sort of biological museum. 

 Its forms are almost all peculiar to itself , but similar 

 to forms that flourished elsewhere over the globe many 

 geological ages ago. It is like an old fashioued vil- 

 lage, shut off from the rest of the world, still pre- 

 serving the fashions of a forgotten age. Its mam- 

 mals are nearly all either egg-layers or pouched 

 animals, of which our opossum is the only outside 

 representative. The former is represented in the 

 case by the little duck-bill, with its web feet and 

 broad bill like a duck. It lays eggs and suckles its 

 young. The pouched animals are well illustrated in 

 the osteological series, and are represented here by 

 one of the smaller kangaroos. 



The birds are as peculiar as the mammals. Most 

 swans are white, but the Australian swan is black. 

 The large almost wingless emu has a coating more 

 nearly resembling hair than feathers. Then above is 

 the apterix or kiwis, whose egg weighs a quarter as 

 much as does the bird, Numerous parrots and cockatoos 

 enliven parts of the region, while the birds of para- 

 dise are perhaps the most beautiful birds in the world. 

 Upon the top shelf stand a pair of lyre-birds, which 

 Gould in his < 6 Birds of Australia ' ' suggests are so 

 typical that they deserve to he made the national bird 

 of that continent. 

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