Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/205

Rh "Who, for instance, is there but must feel surprise at the absence of Monkeys and Woodpeckers from its vast forests; or at the presence there, and there only, of the Platypus among the lower mammals, the Lories among birds, the double-breathing Ceratodus among fish."

The mammals, which number "not much over one hundred and fifty," are treated somewhat fully, with a list of species given at the end of each chapter. It is quite exasperating, in these days of vanished animal life, to find that the Platypus may be approaching extinction. Although "it is of the few indigenous animals not eaten by the natives," its skin has become a commodity with the furriers, though "thirty or forty of the animals must die to make even a small rug." "The Platypus is thus becoming lamentably scarce, and many a beautiful stream in Victoria and Tasmania, where whilom it rooted up the larvæ or engulfed the floating gnat, knows it no longer."

The birds have a very strong individuality; of some six or seven hundred species, some five hundred, "in round numbers, are found nowhere else." Like the Platypus, the Lyre-bird "is indeed doomed to extinction, and is already very scarce in the settled districts." Not much difficulty is experienced in tracing a cause. "Not long since, for example, two enterprising brothers employed a number of men to shoot the luckless male birds, in which, after some practice, they were unfortunately so successful, that five hundred dozen of the beautiful tails were reported to have reached Sydney in the course of a few weeks." This much persecuted bird lays but one egg each season.

Reptiles and Batrachians have received shorter treatment, but contribute many interesting records and facts, while the fishes of Australia receive more ample treatment. "The most striking characters of Australian sea-fish are their rainbow hues, projecting teeth, and a tendency to throw out spinous growths that make their safe handling a matter of some difficulty."

Our author was so fortunate as to witness a combat between the Thresher Alopecias and a Whale. "The best combat of this nature that I ever witnessed was off Moreton Island. We steamed so near, indeed, as to distinguish, with the aid of the glass, the long upper lobe of the Threshers' tails, as two of those unflagging belligerents were falling on their ponderous enemy;