136 THE FASCFATED KANGAROO. 



kangaroo for the defence and shelter of her offspring, is not 

 confined to this genus, but is found in females of all the 

 quadrupeds of New Holland, with the exception of the native 

 dog, a species of water-rat, the paradoxical platypus, and the 

 porcupine ant-eater ; the two latter have, however, the pe- 

 culiar bones which, from a supposition of their supporting 

 the pouch, have been termed by anatomists the marsupial 

 bones. The naturalist has borrowed a term from the same 

 source to designate the animals endowed with this abdominal 

 bag ; and all the great Australian family of quadrupeds, to- 

 gether with the opossums of America, are included by Cuvier 

 in an order called Marsupiata* marsupial or pouched animals. 

 The young in all this tribe are received into the pouch when 

 of an extremely minute size, and there acquire, as in a second 

 womb, their principal growth. It was from this peculiarity 

 that Linnaeus gave to the genus most anciently known, the 

 epithet Didelphis. The peculiarity of this mode of generation 

 has rendered it a subject of great interest in a scientific point 

 of view. 



Some of the particulars that have been noticed may be 

 briefly alluded to. The Count Aboville attentively watched a 

 pair of opossums which he kept in his house. On the fifteenth 

 day of gestation he found, on introducing his finger into the 

 pouch, a round body of the size of a pea; on the seventeenth day 

 he could detect two similarly formed bodies; on the sixtieth day 

 a number of young ones could be seen in the pouch, hanging 

 from the teats. % 



Dr. Barton, an American physician, has observed that the 

 young opossum is born without form, a mere gelatinous mass, 

 without trace of eyes or ears, weighing not more than a sin- 

 gle grain, though coming from a parent as large as a cat. 

 These germs adhere to the nipple, and grow from thence with- 

 out quitting it till they attain the size of a rat ; they then re- 

 turn to the pouch for the purposes of suckling, or when they 

 require shelter. According to him, uterine gestation lasts 

 from twenty-two to twenty- six days. 



M. Rengger also states, that the gestation of the opos- 

 sum, observed in a species he has termed Didelphis Azarcc, 

 lasts twenty-five days ; but according to this author, the 

 young, when they are received into the pouch, are half an inch 

 in length, naked, with the head very large, the eyes closed, 

 the nostrils and the mouth open, the ears folded, the fore- and 

 hind-legs crossed in front of the body, and the tail turned to- 

 wards the same part. In this state, they manifest no signs 

 of life when touched or irritated. Shortly after birth, they 

 are found suspended by the mouth to the nipples, but with- 

 out being coherent with them. They remain attached to the 



