THE OPOSSUM 



57 



food consists of insects and vegetable substances, and it 

 forms a nest of leaves and grass. Its feet, however, 

 constitute its main peculiarity. Every one knows 

 that beasts differ somewhat as to the number of their 

 toes five to each foot being the maximum. In 

 the horse, ass, and zebra alone are these reduced to a 



FIG. 15. 



THE MYRMECOBIUS. 



single toe for each foot those, namely, which answer to 

 our middle finger and our own middle toe respectively. 

 In sheep, oxen, deer, &c., each foot rests upon two toes 

 only, but the chreropus walks upon six toes. Each of its 

 fore-limbs is supported on two toes, while each of its 

 hind-limbs, like each of the hind-limbs of the horse, rests 

 upon one only. This single toe, however, is not the one 

 the horse uses, but corresponds to our fourth toe, and 



