g extensive
collections of its natural productions.

The Mammalia of New Guinea and the adjacent islands, yet discovered,
are only seventeen in number. Two of these are bats, one is a pig of a
peculiar species (Sus papuensis), and the rest are all marsupials. The
bats are, no doubt, much more numerous, but there is every reason to
believe that whatever new land Mammalia man be discovered will belong
to the marsupial order. One of these is a true kangaroo, very similar
to some of 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 climbing, but in other respects the animal seems
better adapted to walls on terra firma. This imperfect adaptation may
be due to the fact of there being no carnivore in New Guinea, and no
enemies of any kind from which these animals have to escape by rapid
climbing. Four species 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 Pluck 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