and.

The species of the genera Nyctophilus, Phalangista, Hepoona, Phascogale,
Macropus, Halmaturus, Hypsiprymnus, and Hydromys, appear to be common to
all parts of the continent, and also to Van Diemen's Land.

The genera Echidna and Ornithorhynchus are found in New Holland and Van
Diemen's Land, but I have not heard of their having been discovered in
the Western or Southern parts of the continent of Australia.

There are some of the genera of the non-Marsupial animals, as Rhinolophus
and Pteropus, which are common to various parts of Australia and the
different parts of the Old World, and others, as Canis, Mus, Scotophilus,
and Molossus, which are common to it and to both Hemispheres. Two
Marsupial genera, Halmaturus and Perameles, have species found in New
Guinea, but most probably, when they have been more carefully examined,
they will be found to form a peculiar genus, allied to the Australian
animals, as is the case with the tree-kangaroos (Dendrolegus) and the
Phalangers (Cuscus) of that country. We have a specimen of the Halmaturus
in the British Museum, from the Leyden collection, but like many of the
specimens in that collection, where the zoological specimens are made
subservient to the anatomical predilections of the conservator, it has no
skull, and false claws, which renders it impossible for me to define its
characters. The tail has rings of scales under the hair, but this is also
the case with most Halmaturi.

Before proceeding to the consideration of the distribution of the
species, over the different districts of Australasia, it may be remarked
that this is a subject surrounded with considerable difficulty, as
different naturalists do not always apply the same test to determine the
distinction of the species, some considering the differences found in the
specimens from different localities, as merely local varieties, and
others regarding them as distinct; and others again declaring that
several specimens, which cabinet naturalists are in the habit of
regarding as only accidental varieties from the examination of the skins,
are quite distinct when they are observed alive in their native habitat.
In the preceding list, when all the specimens I have seen from a
particular habitat have a similar and peculiar character, I have
considered them as species; on the contrary when the specimens from the
same locality offer variations among themselves, as in those of the genus
Hepoona, where the extent of the w