2 
such as reeds m twigs, on which these animals probably browsed. When by a change of climate, or horn other 
causes, the bogs, with their rich vegetation, disappeared, the great Dvprotodons must have found it hard to make 
a living, and naturally succumbed to the altered circumstances, and became extinct. The smaller Kangaroos, with 
their admirable dentition and scissor-like lower jaws, nipped the grass if it was ever so scanty; and many of 
these ancient species having successfully fought for existence, . still live on. There must have been many more 
Herbivorous Marsupials than at present, because many of the remains discovered differ much from recent bones and 
teeth. Sometimes portions of skeletons are noticed, however, which clearly indicate animals of the Kangaroo and 
Phalanger tribe, identical with living ones; but all the gigantic species have ceased to exist. We gather from 
the fossil remains that the bulkier kinds stood low on their legs, and that they progressed in the same way as the 
Wombat; in fact, the skeleton of a Diprotodon must have resembled that of a Wombat or “Native Bear” in 
many points. 
The extinct Kangaroo tribe is principally distinguished by having shorter and stronger tarsi than the 
living Kangaroos, and their mode of progress must have been therefore slower. 
Another gigantic animal, the Zygomaturus, first described by the late Mr. W. S. Macleay, M.A., belongs to 
the same group as the Dvprotodon; its incisor teeth are however more feeble, and bear a still closer resemblance 
to those of the Phalangers. Numerous lower jaws in our collections indicate at least fifteen or more large species 
of either Diprotodon or Notothermm, so that we cannot enumerate less than twenty gigantic grass-eating Marsupials 
belonging to our extinct Pauna. If we add to these at least fifty species of Kangaroos, Wallabies, and Kangaroo 
Bats, and twenty species of Wombats, with a few Phalangers, we bring the Herbivorous Marsupials of Post- 
pleiocene Australia in round numbers to eighty-five species. It is generally considered in confor mi ty with the laws 
of the Creator, that the undue increase of prolific animals should be checked by beasts of prey, and this duty 
appears to have been assigned to a few small but very ferocious species, the remains of which occur in large 
quantities at the Wellington Caves. These Carnivores comprise the Thylacinus and Sarcophilus , probably two species 
of each, which are now completely extinct on the Australian mainland but still exist in Tasmania. Besides these 
large Dasyures, several small ones, from the size of a “Tiger Cat” (D. maoulatus) to that of a small Mouse 
(Antechinus) inhabited the country then as they do now. To these species we must add a Dog, fossil remains of 
which have been found in limestone caves, but no formidable Carnivore equal in power to a Dion or Tiger has 
yet been discovered. 
The Thylacoleo carnifex, a Marsupial with very peculiar dentition, and about as large as a common Bear, 
was evidently a true Phalanger, and of course proportionately carnivorous ; it certainly was not the predacious 
Carnivore which checked the undue increase of the Diprotodons. 
The last group of Marsupials, which in dentition resembles the Dasyures, and in the formation of its hind 
feet, the Kangaroos, has also been found in a fossil state — we allude to the Bandicoots. A few fragments of leg 
bones point even to the presence of an Echidna or Ant-eater of the Order Monotremata , as yet peculiar to 
Australia, whilst other not determined specimens may throw additional light on the extinct Eauna of this wonderful 
Country, which continues to startle the World with important discoveries. It will be as well to recapitulate our 
extinct Eauna before noticing the recent one in detail. 
OBDEB PLACENTALIA. 
Eamilt C'ANiDiE ( Dog tribe). 
Bemains of a Dog have been found at Wellington, but not many specimens were obtained. 
DSt 
