John Gould

“ Such a retrospect will not, I think, be deemed unnecessary, especially since my intention is to show to the general reader, rather than to the scientific naturalist, that each great division of the globe has its own peculiar forms of animal life, and that the fauna of Australia is widely different from that of every other part of the world. By a mere glance at the zoological features of the globe as at present existing, it will be perceived with what precision the animal life of each country has been adapted to its physical character ”

“ Had not Tasmania as well as the mainland been peopled for a long time by the human race, it might have been supposed that their extirpation from the continent had been effected by these children of nature. Whatever the cause may have been, it cannot now be ascertained, and we must be content to treat of the creatures that still exist. Of the true Dasyures, four very distinct species are dispersed over Australia from Van Diemen's Land to the shores of Torres' Straits. ”

“ The name given to the Dugong by the aborigines is Young-un. The flesh is greedily eaten and much sought for by them; and when they have been successful in procuring one or two, which occasionally happens, they gorge themselves in a most unseemly manner, and grease themselves all over with the fat and oil until they glisten in the sun like a roll of butter in the dog-days. ”

“ I have not failed to observe much disparity in size in the Marsupiata; they seem to be always growing; for the males get larger and still larger for years, even long after they have commenced the duty of reproduction, and hence individuals of all sizes occur, and occasionally one extraordinarily large may be met with. I have observed this in all the Marsupials, but particularly among the Kangaroos. The great herds of the grey species, Macropus major, are frequently headed by an enormous male, or Boomer as he is called. ”

“ It is scarcely necessary to say that, after gaining sufficient strength, it leaves this natural pocket of the mother, leaps into the open air and sports about the plains or the forest, as the case may be, and returns again to its warm home, until at length the wearied mother denies it this indulgence and proceeds again to comply with the law which governs all creatures, that of reproduction. ”

“ These giants of the forest are scarcely ever to be found in the interior; sterility is not suited to their existence; they do not occur in company with the Banksiæ, the Hakeæ, or the Casuarinæ, most of which are characteristics of land wherein the settler would not choose to risk his fortune. The great physical features of Australia then, as a whole, are the absence of high mountains and navigable rivers, its heated interior, its vast grassy plains, and its luxuriant brushes, particularly on its southern and south-eastern coasts. ”

“ Whether the Canis Dingo be really indigenous, or has at some very remote period followed man in his migrations, is a question on which naturalists are at variance. For my own part, I am inclined to the latter theory, as being the most philosophic mode of accounting for its presence there. That Man is the latest visitant to the soil of Australia there can be little doubt: the country is far too sparsely provided with fruits and other substances necessary for his existence to favour a contrary hypothesis. ”

“ The true Wallabies, or Halmaturi, are all brush animals, and are more universally dispersed than any of the other members of the entire family. Tasmania is inhabited by two species, New South Wales by at least five, South Australia by two or three, and Western Australia by the same number; while the genus is represented on the north coast by the H. agilis. It will be clear, then, that the arboreal districts of the south, with their thick and impenetrable brushes, are better adapted for the members of this genus than the hotter country of the north. ”

“ Speaking generally, however, Australia may be characterized as one of the driest and most heated countries of our globe; for, although an island in the strictest sense of the word, it is so extensive that the surrounding seas have little influence upon the distant interior, which must still be regarded as a great sterile waste, destitute of mountains sufficient to attract the moisture requisite to form navigable or other rivers. ”

“ The first collection of mammalian fossils from the ossiferous caves of Australia brought to light the former existence on that continent of larger species of the same peculiar marsupial genera: some, as the Thylacine, and the Dasyurine subgenus represented by the D. ursinus, are now extinct on the Australian continent; but one species of each still exists on the adjacent island of Tasmania; the rest were extinct Wombats, Phalangers, Potoroos, and Kangaroos-—some of the latter (Macropus Atlas, M. Titan) being of great stature. ”

“ I find it most difficult to arrange the Australian mammals in anything like a serial order; but the numerous species forming the genera Antechinus and Podabrus are, perhaps, as well placed here as elsewhere. Like the Peramelides, the members of those genera inhabit every part of Australia and the adjacent islands: the thick-tailed species, forming the genus Podabrus, frequent the interior rather than the coast; the Antechini, on the other hand, inhabit both districts ”

“ The Australian mammals must, however, be put to severe straits occasionally, not from the want, but from the superabundance of water,—a wet monsoon in the north, and the heavy rains which occasionally occur in the south, deluging the basin-like surface of the interior and rendering it untenable, and obliging them to retire to the higher ridges until the drought, which generally ensues, has restored it to its normal condition. The districts, or countries as I may call them, which constitute the other portions of Australia are very different, indeed completely opposite in character ”

“ Even the fruit of the stately parasitic Fig is a mere apology for that which we are accustomed to see, and hence but few species of these great frugivorous Bats occur in the fauna of Australia. At the same time, the paucity of species is amply compensated by the number of individuals; these, however, are confined to the brushes which stretch along the eastern coast. In these solitary forests they teem and hang about in thousands, frequently changing their locale when their food becomes scarce or has been entirely cleared off. ”

“ The sluggish river-reaches and water-holes of nearly every part, from Tasmania through all the southern portions of the continent, have their muddy banks traversed by the Hydromys, or Beaver-Rats, as they have been very appropriately called. Even New Zealand, a country which it was formerly supposed never had a more highly organized indigenous creature than a bird, has its Bats; it will not be surprising, therefore, that the sister country of Australia should be tenanted by numerous species of these Nocturnes ”

“ 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 ”

“ The P. Wombat is still abundant in Van Diemen's Land and on some of the islands in Bass's Straits; and two or three species burrow in the plains of the southern countries of Australia generally. These huge, heavy, and short-legged animals, revelling in a state of obesity, feed most harmlessly on roots and other vegetable substances; they are the Rodents of their own Order, and the representatives of the Capybaras of South America. ”

“ The brushes which abound in fruit-bearing fig-trees are frequented by Vampires or Pteropi—a form which appears to be mainly confined to the south-eastern and northern portions of the country, for I have not yet seen any examples from Tasmania, or Southern or Western Australia. The trees in this strange country which either bear fruit or berries are very few. ”

“ They are found in great abundance in the southern and comparatively cold island of Tasmania, while three species, at least, tenant that little-explored country, New Guinea, and some of the adjacent islands. Varied as the physical condition of Australia really is, forms of Kangaroos are there to be found peculiarly adapted for each of these conditions. The open grassy plains, sometimes verdant, at others parched up and sterile, offer an asylum to several of the true Macropi; the hard and stony ridges and rocky crowns of the mountains are frequented by the great Osphranters ”

“ They inhabit the southern and most humid parts of the country, and are to be found everywhere, from Tasmania to the 15th degree of latitude on the continent in one direction, and from the scrubs of Swan River and King George's Sound to the dense brushes of Moreton Bay in the other; like most other Kangaroos, they are nocturnal in their habits, grub the ground for roots, and live somewhat after the manner of the Peramelides, with which, however, they have no relationship. ”

“ The Kangaroo at its birth is not larger than a baby's little finger, which it is not very unlike in shape: in this extremely helpless state, the mother, by some means at present unknown, places this vermiform object to one of the nipples within her pouch or marsupium; by some equally unknown process, the little creature becomes attached by its imperfectly formed mouth to the nipple, and there remains dangling for days, and even weeks, during which it gradually assumes the likeness and structure of its parents ”

“ As might naturally be expected, the climate of a country which extends over more than 30 degrees of latitude is very much diversified. Cape York and Arnheim's Land are as near 11° south as possible, while Wilson's Promontory, in Victoria, reaches 39°, and the southern part of Tasmania 441⁄2°. The parts of Australia approaching the Tropic differ very considerably from its southern portions ”

“ These are the only Placental animals inhabiting the land of Australia, and, contrary to what was formerly supposed, the Rodents form no inconspicuous feature among the quadrupeds of that country. They are very numerous in species, and almost multitudinous in individuals. Every traveller who has visited the interior can testify to this fact. ”

“ When speaking of the wonderful fossil Diprotodon, in his work on Palaeontology, Professor Owen states—"Australia yields evidence of an analogous correspondence between its last extinct and its present aboriginal mammalian- fauna, which is the more interesting on account of the very peculiar organization of most of the native quadrupeds of that division of the globe. That the Marsupialia form one great natural group is now generally admitted by zoologists ”

“ 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 ”

“ The mountain-ranges, of no very great elevation it is true, exert much influence upon the face of nature, constantly attracting rains, which, pouring down their sides, deposit a rich alluvial soil, favourable to the growth of gigantic trees and the most luxuriant vegetation. ”

“ The only chance of obtaining it is by the aid of the natives, a number of whom walking or, rather, pushing their way through and beating the bush as they go abreast, and loudly shouting 'wow, wow, wow,' drive the Damas before them, when, by waiting in a clear space, you get the chance of a shot. ”

“ I am induced to think the former is the case, for I have observed that the dogs pass on without noticing the young one, which generally crouches in a tuft of grass, or hides itself among the scrub, without attempting to run or make its escape; if the mother evades pursuit, she doubtless returns and picks it up. ”

“ Like the land, the ocean is tenanted by many remarkable animals, certain groups of which exist in one hemisphere and are not found in the other; and it is not often that even the great Cetaceans occur in both. ”

“ Four or five of my men being on shore, I directed them to surround a bush into which I saw one of these Wallabies run, when the animal, seeing itself approached on all sides, became so bewildered that, instead of attempting to escape, it thrust its head into the thick scrub and allowed us to catch it by the tail.
"One I have alive has a habit of frequently crouching down like a Hare, with its tail brought forward between and before its fore feet."
Adult Male. Face dark grizzled grey, stained with rufous on the forehead ”