6 
NOTES OF THE EOTBLE FISHES OF VICTORIA. 
species, and Gould says with truth that the productions of this 
latter country (New Guinea) are so similar to those of Australia 
that, zoologically s])eaking, tliey cannot be se])amtcd. 1 must 
not forget to mention those curious animals of Tasmania, 
which ai-o becoming more and more scarce every day, and 
will, there is tio doubt, soon disa})pear from tlie living sorts 
of the world; I mean the Tasmanian <levU {S<trc()phihfs} and the 
Tasmanian tujevf^ These ferocious animals, now only 
conlined to Van Diemen’s Land, have once inhabited Australia, as 
is ])roved by the mimen tus teeth found in the Wellington caves 
and also in Victoria; the genus wombat (JV/o.sco/funis), so entirely 
Australian, and of which only three or four living species are 
known, has been much more numerous, as the fossil remains of 
more tlian twenty sorts liave already been discovered, and some 
of them are of considerable size. Edudnit is also an (dd inhabi- 
tant of Australia, as its fossil bones have l)een found theiu 
In the class of birds we also find that sevei*al large families 
are entirely missing, sucli as the Viditirldie, tlie phdd.re, and 
nearly so the gallbiaeew, but the parrots which ahouud in the 
Malayan Islands are also very nnmerous here, where they have 
over sixty re]n‘esentatives. The cocaiiHis are a remai'kable instance 
<)f tljis, as they equally swarm over all Australia and tlie Indian 
islands. 
Here again we find tliat the most abnormal forms ai*e more 
to be met vdtb in the southern [»arts than in the •northern 
ones. Such is the famous hlach Hwa/u., a-iul also the beautiful 
menimi. The latter extends, it is true, its haJilfat to a con- 
siderable (listance on tlie eastern part of the continent, but 
nowhere is it so common as in eastern Victoria, and in the 
southern ]tarts of New Soutli Wales; its being hmnd out of these 
regions can be explaineil by the fact that the inonntainous and 
brushy couutiy that it inhabits extends in that direction, and we 
must also Lilce in consideration that it is not at all certain that 
the same species extends all through, as Gould consider tliem as 
forming tliree different (mes. In all cases the climate has ]>ro- 
duced its necessary efiects. This I consider confinns my idea 
that types differ in proportion with the distance that separates 
them, as greater the distance, greater has been tlie time elapsed 
since the oiiginixl specimens were separated. I certainly do not 
admit tliat all animal life derivates fnun one cieated type, hut 
I heUeve tli.d those primordial types were proportionally few, 
and tliat like stars they liave radiated in all directions, and have 
formed, are forming, and witli time will foim, almost innumerable 
species. 
The Emeu is found in a fossil state, and has long been a denizen 
of tlie southern continent. The remains of a large species 
