an instance where man had disturbed that chain, by which so many
animals are linked together in their native country. In Van Diemen's
Land, however, I found four species of Onthophagus, two of Aphodius,
and one of a third genus, very abundantly under the dung of cows; yet
these latter animals had been then introduced only thirty-three years.
Previous to that time the kangaroo and some other small animals were
the only quadrupeds; and their dung is of a very different quality from
that of their successors introduced by man. In England the greater
number of stercovorous beetles are confined in their appetites; that
is, they do not depend indifferently on any quadruped for the means of
subsistence. The change, therefore, in habits which must have taken
place in Van Diemen's Land is highly remarkable. I am indebted to the
Rev. F. W. Hope, who, I hope, will permit me to call him my master in
Entomology, for giving me the names of the foregoing insects.
[5] Monats. der Konig. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin. Vom April, 1845.
[6] I have described this Bar in detail, in the Lond. and Edin. Phil.
Mag., vol. xix. (1841), p. 257.
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