The Relation Of The New Guinea Fauna To That Of Australia Is Very
Close.
It is best marked in the Mammalia by the abundance of
marsupials, and the almost complete absence of all other
terrestrial forms.
In birds it is less striking, although still
very clear, for all the remarkable old-world forms which are
absent from the one are equally so from the other, such as
Pheasants, Grouse, Vultures, and Woodpeckers; while Cockatoos,
Broad-tailed Parrots, Podargi, and the great families of the
Honeysuckers and Brush-turkeys, with many others, comprising no
less than twenty-four genera of land-birds, are common to both
countries, and are entirely confined to them.
When we consider the wonderful dissimilarity of the two regions
in all those physical conditions which were once supposed to
determine the forms of life-Australia, with its open plains,
stony deserts, dried up rivers, and changeable temperate climate;
New Guinea, with its luxuriant forests, uniformly hot, moist, and
evergreen - this great similarity in their productions is almost
astounding, and unmistakeably points to a common origin. The
resemblance is not nearly so strongly marked in insects, the
reason obviously being, that this class of animals are much more
immediately dependent on vegetation and climate than are the more
highly organized birds and Mammalia. Insects also have far more
effective means of distribution, and have spread widely into
every district favourable to their development and increase. The
giant Ornithopterae have thus spread from New Guinea over the
whole Archipelago, and as far as the base of the Himalayas; while
the elegant long-horned Anthribidae have spread in the opposite
direction from Malacca to New Guinea, but owing to unfavourable
conditions have not been able to establish themselves in
Australia.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 388 of 412
Words from 104662 to 104951
of 111511
