ZOOLOGY
SECTION I—MAMMALIA
The most perfect list of the mammals of Australia which has yet appeared is in the appendix to Capt. Gray's Travels in North-west and Western Australia, compiled by J. E. Gray, Esq., of the British Museum. Since its publication (1841) a few additional species have been added to the fauna of Tasmania, and a few of the smaller animals, probably, remain still to be described; but they will not materially affect the following list, which is compiled from the table by Mr. Gray, and a subsequent History of the Marsupiata, by G. R. Waterhouse (1846):—
| ORDERS. | GENERA. | Total No. of Species in Tasmania. | Peculiar to Tasmania. | Common to Australia and Tasmania. |
| CHEIROPTERA | Nyctophilus Scotophilus | 1 2 | — — | 1 2 |
| MARSUPIALIA | Thylacinus Dasyurus includes Diabolus Phascogale includes Antechinus Perameles Phalangista includes Hepoona Phascolomys Hypsiprymnus includes Bettongia Macropus includes Halmaturus | 1 3 3 2 3 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 1 1 — 1 1 | — 1 — 1 2 1 1 2 |
| RODENTIA | Hydromys Mus | 1 2 | — 1 | 1 1 |
| EDENTATA, or MONOTREMATA | Ornithorhynchus Echidna | 1 1 | — 1 | 1 — |
| 26 | 12 | 14 | ||
This makes a total of twenty-six mammals inhabiting Tasmania, exclusive of the Seals and Cetacea, with which our acquaintance is still very imperfect.
From the above list it will be perceived, with the exception of the three bats, two mice, and one water-rat, that all our mammals are either Marsupial (pouched) or Monotrematous (a closely-allied form, to which belong the platypus and porcupine of the colonists). Orders found in other countries, such as the Pachydermata and Ruminantia, are in Tasmania wholly wanting, as they are also throughout the extensive continent of Australia.
It is also remarkable that twelve out of the twenty-six animals are peculiar to this small island, and have not yet been detected elsewhere. Amongst those thus limited in their geographical range are the tiger and devil of the colonists, the two largest indigenous Australian carnivorous quadrupeds.
Australia is the great metropolis of the marsupial animals. Certain species of the group are found in North and South America, and in New Guinea, the Moluccas, and adjacent islands, but the numbers seem limited as compared with the other indigenous quadrupeds of those countries. Professor Owen observes:—"That the marsupialia form one great natural group is now generally admitted by zoologists. The representatives in that group of many of the orders of the more extensive placental sub-class of the mammalia of the larger continents have also been recognised in the existing genera and species:—the Dasyures, for example, play the parts of the Carnivora, the Bandicoots of the Insectivora, the Phalangers of the Quadrumana, the Wombat of the Rodentia, and the Kangaroos, in a remoter degree, that of the Ruminantia."[268]