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.
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