﻿THE BANDICOOTS. I3T 



surface by the more highly organised Placentals, surviving, as 

 we have seen, only in Austraha and South America, with the 

 exception that one member of the single American family ranges 

 into the northern half of the New World. 



In habits the Polyprotodonts are chiefly carnivorous or in- 

 sectivorous, and they thus take the place in Australia occupied 

 in other regions by the true Carnivores and the so-called Insecti- 

 vores, such as the Shrews, Hedgehogs, and Moles. 



Although in four out of the five families into which the Poly- 

 protodonts are divided the structure of the hind foot is quite 

 different from that obtaining in the Diprotodonts, yet it is not 

 a little remarkable that in the family under consideration 

 there is the same small size and union in a common integument 

 of the second and third toes. The relation in which this struc- 

 ture stands to its representative in the Diprotodonts has given 

 rise to much discussion — but it must probably be regarded as 

 an instance of parallel development. 



With these preliminary remarks, we proceed to the special 

 characteristics of the family Peramelidce^ which are as follows : — 



Hind limbs markedly the longer ; fore limbs with three, or 

 sometimes only two, of the middle toes long and clawed, the 

 others rudimentary or absent ; hind feet with four or five very 

 unequally-sized toes ; first toe, or hallux, rudimentary or absent; 

 second and third slender and united in a common integument ; 

 fourth the strongest, long, with a large claw. Pouch opening 

 backwards ; intestine with a blind appendage or caecum ; 

 collar-bones, or clavicles, wanting. Four or five pairs of incisor 

 teeth in the upper, and three in the lower jaw. Tail long and 

 not prehensile. 



This family is found both in Australia and New Guinea, 

 Although allied to the next, it is sharply differentiated therefrom 

 by the structure of the hind foot. The peculiarity of the hind 



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