4 METATHEBIA. 



Dimensions. Head and body, E. lawesi, about fourteen inches; 

 E. aculeata, about seventeen, and E. setosa about twenty. 



Habitat. From South-eastern New Guinea throughout the 



o 



whole of Australia to Tasmania. 



References. Thomas, B.M. Catal. p. 377 ; Gould, Mamm. 

 Austr. i. pis. ii. (E. aculeata), iii. (E. setosa), 



Subclass II. METATHERIA. 



The Metatherian Mammals, more generally known as the 

 DIDELPIIIA or MARSUPIALIA, are at the present time, with the ex- 

 ception of the True Opossums (DidelphyidwJ of the New World, 

 confined to the Australian, Papuasian, and the eastern islands of 

 the Austro-Malayan subregions ; the easternmost point to which 

 their range extends being the Island of San Christoval, belonging 

 to the western section of the Solomon Archipelago, where the short- 

 headed variety of the Gray Cuscus (Phalanger orientalis var. 

 breviceps) is found ; the Group was however at a former period 

 much more generally distributed over the surface of the earth, 

 species having been discovered in a fossil state in Europe, South 

 Africa, and America. They differ from all other Mammals by the 

 presence in the female of a permanent pouch (marsupium) 

 obselete in Myrmecobius and practically so in Phascologale 

 formed by a fold in the integument, and which is furnished with 

 a varying number of teats, to which the young are attached at 

 a very early stage of growtli by the mother, who, by means of 

 specially adapted muscles, forces the milk from the mammas into 

 their mouths, their condition being for a considerable period so 

 imperfect as to preclude the possibility of their obtaining nutri- 

 ment of their own volition. Both sexes are provided with long 

 epipubic bones, generally known as " marsupial bones," though 

 having in reality no connection whatever with the pouch ; these 

 bones are rudimentary in Thylacinus, while in the Bandicoots 

 fPeramelidce) the clavicles are wanting. 



Order I. -MARSUPIALIA. 



Limbs subequal, or the hinder pair much the larger and form- 

 ing the chief agents in progression. Tail almost invariably present, 

 generally long, and often prehensile. Teeth very variable in 

 structure. Mammse in varying numbers. 



Suborder I Polyprotodontia. 



Incisors numerous, four or five in the upper, three or four in 

 the lower jaw, subequal, much smaller than the canines. Molars 

 generally sharply cuspidate. 



Habits. Carnivorous ; insectivorous ; rarely omnivorous. 



