INTRODUCTION. 
xii 
17th century that Aldrovandus, Piso, Marcgrave, and Willughby wrote their works on this branch of science. 
At this comparatively late period, the productions of Europe were better known ; Africa had been for a long 
time circumnavigated, and its southern fauna partially brought to light ; India also in like manner furnished 
her quota, though sparingly, to the stock of human knowledge. What Alexander’s celebrated expedition 
did for the. naturalists Aristotle and Pliny, the discoveries of Columbus did by shedding a new light upon 
zoological science, and furnishing fresh food to the modern writers above mentioned. Linnaeus, the greatest 
of all systematists, had a very extended knowledge of the natural productions of the globe, and the informa- 
tion this great man has left behind him in his numerous writings is considerable. Still, the southern land 
which we designate Australia (the mammalian products of which this work is intended to illustrate) was a 
sealed book to him. As regards this great country, it may be said that its most highly organized animals, 
if we except the Seals, are the various species of Rodents, and the equally numerous insectivorous and 
frugivorous Bats, both of which rank among the lowest of the Placentals. In America the Marsupialia are 
but feebly represented ; in Africa and India none of this form exist. On the other hand, Australia is the 
great country of these pouched animals ; they are universally distributed throughout its entire extent, from 
north to south, and from east to west ; and they are not even absent from the neighbouring islands. Their 
presence in Tasmania on the south, and New Guinea on the north, testifies that these countries were 
formerly united to the mainland, and constituted a great natural division of the globe, characterized by a 
similar fauna and flora. It will be unnecessary for me to state that none of the Quadrumana, or Monkeys, 
are found in Australia ; and that neither the Lion, the Tiger, the Leopard, nor any other of the Felines, 
roam among its forests, to disturb the harmony of its generally peaceful quadrupeds. 
The great groups of the Bovines, or Oxen, the Equince, or Horses and Zebras, the stately Elephant, the 
huge Rhinoceros, as well as the Cermdce, or Deer-kind, and the Antelopes, are totally unknown in Australia; 
yet the great grassy plains and other physical features of the country would appear to be well adapted for 
them and also for the smaller herbivorous quadrupeds, such as the Hare, the Rabbit, &c. Why there 
should occur so great a difference between the animals of Australia and those of the other countries of the 
world it is not for me to say. But I may ask, has creation been arrested in this strange land ? and, if not, 
why are these higher types denied to it ? Whatever opinion may be formed on this interesting subject, 
it is generally believed that no more highly organized animals than those which are now found there ever 
roamed over her plains or tenanted her luxuriant brushes. At the same time, the partially fossilized remains 
of distinct species of Kangaroos which have been discovered in her stalactitic caves, and the huge skeletons, 
or parts of skeletons, which have been exhumed from her alluvial beds, testify that Australia must be of 
remote origin. It is scarcely necessary to remark that all these remains belong to Marsupial animals ; nor 
must it be imagined that I am oblivious of the fact that the remains of members of this group have been 
found in the older tertiary and secondary strata of Europe. I merely glance at these things, and leave their 
consideration to those who pay special attention to the sister science of geology. 
Although the more highly organized animals do not inhabit, and seem never to have inhabited Australia, 
it is not a little interesting to observe how completely the law of representation is manifested among her 
mammals — how one family typifies another in the higher groups of the Placentalia ; or, to be more explicit, 
to note how the Herbivora are represented by the Kangaroos, the Felines by the Dasyures, the Jerboas by 
the Hapalotides, &c. When speaking of the wonderful fossil Diprotodon, in his work on Palaeontology, 
D3! 
