INTRODUCTION. 
The Patina of Australia is as peculiar as its Plora ; and comparing the Mammals with the inhabitants of other 
Countries, the observer is struck by the total absence of the great groups of Ruminants, Pachyderms, and Placental 
Carnivores, with which the plains and forests of Europe, Africa, and America abound. Australia is pre-eminently 
the land of the Marsupials, or Pouched Animals, the more highly organized Placentals being feebly represented by 
a species of Dog, a few Seals, many species of Bats, and numerous Rodents or Rats. Reviewing these families, 
we cannot hut notice that two groups, namely, the Seals and Bats, have peculiar advantages in their mode of 
locomotion, and may have reached the Great South Country with little difficulty. The Dog has always been 
considered to he introduced by Man, and if so, our race must have visited Australia at an early age, though it 
is more likely that the Dog, the Rats, and the Pouched Animals existed together long before Man made his 
appearance in this part of the World. 
There can he no doubt that the Australian Continent was much larger at one time, and that the 
numerous islands scattered over the Banda and Arafura Sea, such as Aru, Ceram, New Guinea, and, farther east, 
the Solomon’s and New Hebrides Islands, formed, with New Holland proper, a more or less compact mass, in 
which the Marsupial Pauna was predominant. 
The smaller islands are either destitute of Mammals (except Bats), or, if they possess any, they belong 
to the pouched tribe. Prom New Guinea, a Pig (Sus papuensisj has been recorded, also a small Placental 
Insectivore fParadoxurus 'hermaphroditaj ; the Marsupials amount, however, to eight genera and ten species. Besides, 
the interior of New Guinea, with its high tableland, and snowy peaks of over 13,000 feet in height, is still a 
sealed hook to the geographer and the naturalist ; though, with all our scant knowledge, some of the most peculiar 
forms of marsupial life, the Tree-kangaroos, have been discovered in its sombre forests. Who can say how many 
more of the Creator’s wondrous animals may yet he found when this the largest island of the Globe is brought 
under the influence of civilization. There are several Marsupials which New Guinea, the Aru Islands, and 
Northern Australia have in common, so that the supposition of these islands being at one time joined to the 
Australian Continent is more than probable. 
Before we consider the recent Pauna of Australia, it is necessary to go hack to the evidence of fossil 
remains which many caves and alluvial deposits have yielded up. These remains prove clearly that the Country was 
inhabited in former ages by animals often larger than, hut always similar in structure to, our present Kangaroos 
or Phalangers. The first group, the grass-eating Kangaroos, Wallabies, Kangaroo-rats, Phalangers, and Wombats, 
abounded; there is evidence even of the Koala, or Native Bear, and of a small Plying Phalanger not larger 
than a Sugar Squirrel (BelideusJ ; hut there is also clear proof of gigantic creatures roving over our plains, 
or perhaps inhabiting the ancient swamps and rivers, which in size can only be compared to the Rhinoceros 
or the Hippopotamus. The teeth of these large species, in their form, number, and distribution, resemble, with 
some modification, those of the Phalangers ; and the usual formula, which holds good in recent species, varies but 
slightly in the large fossil ones. When we examine the dentition of a Diprotodon, the largest of the tribe, we find 
six incisors above and two below (that is, three and one respectively in each ramus). We also notice one premolar 
and four molars or grinders in each ramus, above and below. The tusks, or first pair of upper, and the two 
incisive lower teeth, are coarse, not very regular, and evidently designed for the cutting of thick, rank herbage, 
