The Bats Are, No Doubt, Much More Numerous,
But There Is Every Reason To Believe That Whatever New Land
Mammalia
Man be discovered will belong to the marsupial order.
One of these is a true kangaroo, very similar to some
Of middle-
sized kangaroos of Australia, and it is remarkable as being the
first animal of the kind ever seen by Europeans. It inhabits
Mysol and the Aru Islands (an allied species being found in New
Guinea), and was seen and described by Le Brun in 1714, from
living specimens at Batavia. A much more extraordinary creature
is the tree-kangaroo, two species of which are known from New
Guinea. These animals do not differ very strikingly in form from
the terrestrial kangaroos, and appear to be but imperfectly
adapted to an arboreal life, as they move rather slowly, and do
not seem to have a very secure footing on the limb of a tree. The
leaping power of the muscular tail is lost, and powerful claws
have been acquired to assist in climbing, but in other respects
the animal seems better adapted to walls on terra firma. This
imperfect adaptation may be due to the fact of there being no
carnivore in New Guinea, and no enemies of any kind from which
these animals have to escape by rapid climbing. Four species of
Cuscus, and the small flying opossum, also inhabit New Guinea;
and there are five other smaller marsupials, one of which is the
size of a rat, and takes its place by entering houses and
devouring provisions.
The birds of New Guinea offer the greatest possible contrast to
the Mammalia, since they are more numerous, more beautiful, and
afford more new, curious, and elegant forms than those of any
other island on the globe. Besides the Birds of Paradise, which
we have already sufficiently considered, it possesses a number of
other curious birds, which in the eyes of the ornithologist
almost serves to distinguish it as one of the primary divisions
of the earth. Among its thirty species of parrots are the Great
Pluck Cockatoo, and the little rigid-tailed Nasiterna, the giant
and the dwarf of the whole tribe. The bare-headed Dasyptilus is
one of the most singular parrots known; while the beautiful
little long-tailed Charmosyna, and the great variety of
gorgeously-coloured lories, have no parallels elsewhere. Of
pigeons it possesses about forty distinct species, among which
are the magnificent crowned pigeons, now so well known in our
aviaries, and pre-eminent both for size and beauty; the curious
Trugon terrestris, which approaches the still more strange
Didunculus of Samoa; and a new genus (Henicophaps), discovered by
myself, which possesses a very long and powerful bill, quite
unlike that of any other pigeon. Among its sixteen kingfishers,
it possesses the carious hook-billed Macrorhina, and a red and
blue Tanysiptera, the most beautiful of that beautiful genus.
Among its perching birds are the fine genus of crow-like
starlings, with brilliant plumage (Manucodia); the carious pale-
coloured crow (Gymnocorvus senex); the abnormal red and black
flycatcher (Peltops blainvillii); the curious little boat-billed
flycatchers (Machaerirhynchus); and the elegant blue flycatcher-
wrens (Todopsis).
The naturalist will obtain a clearer idea of the variety and
interest of the productions of this country, by the statement,
that its land birds belong to 108 genera, of which 20 are
exclusively characteristic of it; while 35 belong to that limited
area which includes the Moluccas and North Australia, and whose
species of these genera have been entirely derived from New
Guinea.
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