How is it, that though we have echidna in three different colours--black,
grey and straw--there is no typical marsupial, large or small, no iguana
(rather, monitor lizard), though a fair variety of other reptiles, from
white, house-haunting geckoes to carpet snakes? Though the CYCAS MEDIA is
plentiful on the seaward slopes of the adjacent mainland, no trace of
that interesting old-world plant has been discovered here. and but one
casual representative has been found of the graceful fan palm (LICUALA
MUELLERI), another relic of the far beginning of Australia. No doubt the
seed whence the single fan palm sprung would be brought hither by a
nutmeg pigeon; but there is no bird-carrier for the CYCAD, and the set of
the current is opposed to its transport by the sea.
In birds and in mammals and in plants, wide-spread Australian groups are
unrepresented.
THE DAYBREAK FUGUE
Before there is any visible sign of the break of day, some keener and
finer perception than man possesses reveals it to the noisy pitta, or
dragoon bird, which in duty bound makes prompt proclamation. Man trusts
to mechanism to check off the watches of the night; birds to a
self-contained grace more sensitive if not so viciously exact.
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