154 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST, 
AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS. 
By A. §S. LE Souger. 
The Australian animals consist of marsupials, rodents, 
and bats, with one canine representative—the dingo. On 
account of their ancient type, interest is chiefly centred 
in the marsupials. These are very circumscribed, being 
sharply divided from the Asiatic animals by Wallace’s 
line, running east of New Guinea. The Cuscus extends 
into the Celebes, and is in evidence in some of the large 
islands extending east towards America, where two fami- 
lies of marsupials are also found. On account of our 
animals being nocturnal, they are very unobtrusive, and 
beyond the kangaroos and wallabies, are seldom seen by 
the casual observer; but it is very instructive to take a 
walk through the bush with an aboriginal, whose train- 
ing fits him to read the signs of the forest or plain like 
an open book. I can remember such an excursion in the 
Dorrigo. Our euide, an intelligent aboriginal called Billy 
Jo, was well acquainted with the district, and the abode 
of an opossum was easily found from scratches on the 
trees. A small hole 40 ft. up a smooth, dead tree was 
declared to be inhabited, as flies were round the entrance, 
and investigation revealed two small pouched mice (Phas- 
cogale). A leaf sticking out up another tree denoted the 
‘lay up’’ of the large flying squirrel (Petauroides). 
The fresh bark stripped off a Hucalyptus gave clue 
to the nest of a Ring-tail Opossum, a bunch of leaves in 
the crevice of rock contained’ another Phascogale, whilst 
a slight mound of grass was the home of a Rat Kangaroo. 
It is interesting to note how similar in form most 
of our marsupials are to much higher types of animals 
of similar habits found in other parts of the world. Thus 
our Phalangers are like the lemurs in shape, size, and 
colour, and have much the same colour variations; this 
is especially so in the case of the Vulpine Opossum and 
the Mongoose Lemur. The Jerboa Rat (Conilurus) 
closely resembles the Jerboas of Europe and Africa., The 
Pouched Mice (Phascologale and Sminthopsis) are similar 
in external appearance to the ordinary mice and rats of 
the genus Mus. The Tasmanian Wolf (Vhylacinus) is 
very dog-like, while the Tiger Cat (Dasyurus) resembles 
the Civit Cat. The balance of wild life in Australia has 
