Page:Mammals of Australia (Gould), introduction.djvu/38

 provinces of the country have been more diligently explored.

The third and concluding volume is devoted to the Rodents, Seals, and Bats, and ends with the Canis Dingo. These are the only Placental animals inhabiting the land of Australia, and, contrary to what was formerly supposed, the Rodents form no inconspicuous feature among the quadrupeds of that country. They are very numerous in species, and almost multitudinous in individuals. Every traveller who has visited the interior can testify to this fact. If exploration has been his object, the numerous runs and tracks of these little animals must have been frequently presented to his notice,—every grassy bed being tenanted by its own species of Mus, while all the sand-hills are run over by the same or other species, interspersed with the Jerboa-like Hapalotides. The sluggish river-reaches and water-holes of nearly every part, from Tasmania through all the southern portions of the continent, have their muddy banks traversed by the Hydromys, or Beaver-Rats, as they have been very appropriately called. Even New Zealand, a country which it was formerly supposed never had a more highly organized indigenous creature than a bird, has its Bats; it will not be surprising, therefore, that the sister country of Australia should be tenanted by numerous species of these Nocturnes; not only are they individually very plentiful, but many distinct forms or genera are there found. The brushes which abound in fruit-bearing fig-trees are frequented by Vampires or Pteropi—a form which appears to be mainly confined to the south-eastern and northern portions of the country, for I have not yet seen any examples from Tasmania, or Southern or Western Australia. The trees in this strange country which either bear fruit or berries are very few. Even the fruit of the stately parasitic Fig is a mere apology for that which we are accustomed to see, and hence but few species of these great frugivorous Bats occur in the fauna of Australia. At the same time, the paucity of species is amply compensated by the number of individuals; these,