RODENTIA. IU/ 



would therefore be necessary to rank among the Rodentia. We should even have placed it there, 

 had we not been gradually led to it by an uninterrupted series from the Opossums to the Phalan- 

 gers, thence to the Kangaroos, and from the Kangaroos to the Wombat.* Their reproductive organs 

 are entirely similar to those of other Marsupiata. 



Tbey are sluggish animals, with large flat heads, and bodies that appear as if crushed. They are 

 without a tail; have five nails on each of the fore-feet, and four, with a small tubercle in place of a 

 thumb, on each of the hind ones, all very long and adapted for burrowing. Their gait is remarkably 

 slow. They have two long incisors to each jaw, almost similar to those of the Rodentia, [but which 

 oppose flat surfaces to cacb other, and not chisel-like edges, as in the latter] ; and their grinders have 

 each two transverse ridges. 



They subsist on herbage, and have a large and pear-formed stomach, and short and wide ccecum, 

 furnished (like that of Man and the Ourang-outang) with a vermiform appendage. The penis is forked, 

 as in the Opossums. 



One species only is known (Did. urttina, Shaw) ; of the size of a Badirer ; the fur abundant, and of a more or less 

 yellowish-brown. It is found in Van Diemen's Land, where it lives in its burrow; and breeds readily in confine- 

 ment. The flesh is said to be excellent. [The skin of this animal is remarkably thick, and curiously attached to 

 the hip-bones : its eyes are unusually small. W hen attacked, it grunts like a Pig ; and is found at various eleva- 

 tions, burrowing in the forests and low grounds, and retiring to crevices in the upper. To the colonists, it is 

 generally known as the Badger. 



The Marsupiata arc distributed by Prof. Owen, in conformity with the structure of their 

 digestive organs, as follows : — 



1. The ccecum altogether absent. — Thylacynus, Dasyurus, Pkascor/aie, and probably 

 Myrmccnbius. 



'2. With a small ccecum. — Didelphis and Cheironectes ; Perameles, and probably T/iy- 

 lacomys. 



3. Ccecum of large size. — Phascolarctos, Phalangista, Petaurus. 



4. The stomach complicated. — Macropus and Hypsiprymmu. 



5. Ccecum with a vermiform appendage. — Phascalomys 



This arrangement appears to be perfectly in accordance with the affinities of these animals : 

 though, at the same time, it may be added that the "Wombat {Phascalomys) might properly 

 form a distinct order of Ovovicipera.~\ 



THE FIFTH ORDER OF MAMMALIANS. 



RODENTIA. 



We have just seen, in the Phalangers, canines so small, that we can hardly consider them 

 as such. The nutriment of these animals, accordingly, is chiefly derived from the vegetable 



kingdom. Their intestines are long, and the CCBCum simple ; and the Kangaroos, which have 



no canines at all, subsist on vegetables <ml\. The Wombat might commence that series of 



animals of which we are now about to speak, and which have a system of mandiieation even 

 less complete. 



Two large incisors in each jaw, separated from the molars by a wide interval, cannot well 



seize a living prey, or devour flesh. They are unable even to cut the aliment; but they 



serve to file, and by continued labour, to reduce it into small particles; in a word, to gnaw 

 it: Inner the oame Bodentia applied to the animals of this order: it is tlms that the) • 



• Til r, ninrr apparent ilmn rcnl, a, n 



the Wombat, which ilMhm from all other M 

 eucy .-t it., formalin pnlpa ol In loath, which, In ■■ 



ceaaa growing »t the ti«»c, - ">• «'«r «»»r by 



attrition.— Kb. 



