Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
supial order. One of these is a true kangaroo, very similar to some of the middle-sized
kangaroos of Australia, and it is remarkable as being the first animal of the kind ever seen
by Europeans. It inhabits Mysol and the Aru Islands (an allied species being found in New
Guinea), and was seen and described by Le Brun in 1714, from living specimens at Batavia.
A much more extraordinary creature is the tree-kangaroo, two species of which are known
from New Guinea. These animals do not differ very strikingly in form from the terrestrial
kangaroos, and appear to be but imperfectly adapted to an arboreal life, as they move rather
slowly, and do not seem to have a very secure footing on the limb of a tree. The leaping
power of the muscular tail is lost, and powerful claws have been acquired to assist in climb-
ing, but in other respects the animal seems better adapted to walk on
terra firma
. This im-
perfect adaptation may be due to the fact of there being no carnivora in New Guinea, and no
enemies of any kind from which these animals have to escape by rapid climbing. Four spe-
cies of Cuscus, and the small flying opossum, also inhabit New Guinea; and there are five
other smaller marsupials, one of which is the size of a rat, and takes its place by entering
houses and devouring provisions.
The birds of New Guinea offer the greatest possible contrast to the Mammalia, since they
are more numerous, more beautiful, and afford more new, curious, and elegant forms than
those of any other island on the globe. Besides the Birds of Paradise, which we have already
sufficiently considered, it possesses a number of other curious birds, which in the eyes of
the ornithologist almost serves to distinguish it as one of the primary divisions of the earth.
Among its thirty species of parrots are the Great Black Cockatoo, and the little rigid-tailed
Nasiterna, the giant and the dwarf of the whole tribe. The bare-headed Dasyptilus is one of
the most singular parrots known; while the beautiful little long-tailed Charmosyna, and the
great variety of gorgeously-coloured lories, have no parallels elsewhere. Of pigeons it pos-
sesses about forty distinct species, among which are the magnificent crowned pigeons, now
so well known in our aviaries, and pre-eminent both for size and beauty; the curious Trugon
terrestris, which approaches the still more strange Didunculus of Samoa; and a new genus
(Henicophaps), discovered by myself, which possesses a very long and powerful bill, quite
unlike that of any other pigeon. Among its sixteen kingfishers, it possesses the curious
hook-billed Macrorhina, and a red and blue Tanysiptera, the most beautiful of that beautiful
genus. Among its perching birds are the fine genus of crow-like starlings, with brilliant
plumage (Manucodia); the curious pale-coloured crow (Gymnocorvus senex); the abnormal
red and black flycatcher (Peltops blainvillii); the curious little boat-billed flycatchers
(Machærirhynchus); and the elegant blue flycatcher-wrens (Todopsis).
