Page:Mammals of Australia (Gould), introduction.djvu/18

 INTRODUCTION.

the foregoing Preface I have glanced at the principal groups of Mammals inhabiting the great country of Australia. It will now, however, be necessary to enter into greater detail respecting this division of its fauna; and I conceive that it will not be out of place if I commence with a retrospective view of the gradual discovery of countries and their zoological productions from the earliest historic times. 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; the absence of certain great families of birds and quadrupeds in some countries will also be apparent. To account for this on any scientific principle would be very difficult, when we cannot say why the Nightingale is not a summer visitant to Devonshire, or why the Grouse is not found south of Wales; why the aerial Swifts, Swallows, and Martins are numerous in Australia, and absent in New Zealand; or why Woodpeckers, which occur in nearly every other part of the globe, are not found in Australia, New Guinea, or any of the Polynesian Islands.