Page:Mammals of Australia (Gould), introduction.djvu/25

 or countries as I may call them, which constitute the other portions of Australia are very different, indeed completely opposite in character; I mean the rich lands which surround nearly the whole of the sterile centre. 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 forests of Palms which there occur are scarcely inferior to those of any other country, while the stately native Cedars and Fig-trees are wonders to every traveller. 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. Over the whole of this extensive country, with its ever-varying climate, certain groups of animals are universally spread, while others, particularly the more isolated forms, are strictly confined to their own districts, each adapted for some special end and purpose,—as much as the long bill of the Humming-bird (Docimastes ensiferus) is evidently formed for exploring the lengthened tubular corollas of the Brugmansiæ, or the greatly curved bill of two species of the same family of birds (the Eutoxeres Aquila and E. Condaminei) is for insertion into the honey-cups of the Coryanthes speciosa and its allies,—or, to take a more striking instance, as the brush-like tongues of the numerous honey-feeding Parrakeets and Honeyeaters of Australia are constituted for obtaining the nectar from the flowers of the universally spread and equally numerous Eucalypti which form so prominent a feature in the flora of that country.

I will now give, as far as my knowledge of the subject will