355 



THE HIND fOOT OR FES. 



[CHAP. 



a 



without a nail, and presents therefore an approximation to 



the next group. 



In the leaf-eating, climbing Australian Opossums (PKalan- 



gista. Fig. 131) and Koalas (Phascolarctos) the second and 



third toes are also very slender, but the fourth and fifth are 



more equal, especially in length, the 

 foot is broad, and there is a strongly- 

 developed prehensile and opposable, 

 through nailless, hallux. 



The insect- and root-eating, ground- 

 dwelling Bandicoots (Peramelidcz) dif- 

 fering in many other respects from the 

 Kangaroos, have their hind foot con- 

 structed on exactly the same type as in 

 Macropus, even to the relative length 

 of the different digits, though there is 

 often a rudiment of the metatarsal of 

 the hallux. In one remarkable genus 

 (Chteropus)) already mentioned on 

 account of the peculiar structure of the 

 manus (see Fig. 112, p. 310), the same 

 type is carried to a great extreme, the 

 fourth toe (see Fig. 132) remaining of 

 a prodigious size, and the fifth being 

 reduced to even smaller dimensions 

 than the second or third. 

 MONOTREMATA. In both species the seven usual bones 



of the tarsus are complete and distinct, 1 and the five digits 



have the normal number of phalanges. 



1 It has been stated that the cuboid in the Ornithorhynchus is divided 

 into two bones, as in some reptiles, one supporting the fourth and the 

 other the fifth metatarsal ; but this is not the case in any specimen 

 which I have examined. 



FIG. 132. Bones of right 

 foot of Chceropus ca&ta- 

 notis (nat. size). 



