I remain, dear sir, yours very truly, F. A. HAGENAUER. CHAPTER XII. SOME SPECIMENS OF AUSTRALIAN FAUNA AND FLORA. MARSUPIALS--THE 'TASMANIAN DEVIL'--DINGOES--KANGAROO HUNTING--THE LYRE-BIRD--BOWER-BIRD--THE GIANT KINGFISHER--EMU HUNTING--SNAKES--THE SHARK--ALLEGED MONOTONY OF VEGETATION--TROPICAL VEGETATION OF COAST--THE GIANT GUM--THE ROSTRATA--THE MALLEE SCRUB--FLOWERS AND SHRUBS. [Illustration: AUSTRALIAN TREE-FERNS.] [Illustration: DINGOES.] No large carnivorous animals roam over the Australian plains, to endanger the life of man or to destroy his flocks and herds. Australia is the mother country of the meek and mild marsupial, which is found in abundance, varying in size from the great red 'old man' kangaroo, which stands between six and seven feet high, to the marsupial mouse, which will sleep in a good sized pill-box. There is the stupid, heavy wombat, which seems a mere animated ball of flesh, which burrows in the ground, and which apparently cannot move a mile an hour when it appears on the surface, though its pace is really better than that. On the other hand, there is the elegant flying fox, or rather flying opossum, which by means of a bat-like membrane glides through the air at night, astonishing the traveller, who sees hundreds of large forms sweep noiselessly by. Great fruit-eaters are these flying foxes, and there is tribulation when a horde visits a settled district. The native bear, as a marsupial sloth is termed, is the most innocent-looking of animals, and the most harmless, feeding on the leaves of the gum. It swarms in the various colonies. In the next tree will be found a family of the _Dasyuridæ_ or native cats, beautiful spotted creatures, the size of a half-grown cat, whose sharp face and continuous activity betray at once a restless and a wicked disposition. It is carnivorous, fierce and intractable. The marsupial pictured on page 183 is a specimen of an elegant variety of the common opossum, found principally in the neighbourhood of the Bass River, Victoria. The common opossum is found everywhere. [Illustration: THE _Sarcophilus_ OR 'TASMANIAN DEVIL.']