﻿136 Allen's naturalist's library. 



twelve species, are all comparatively small creatures, distributed 

 over Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and some of the 

 neighbouring islands. Exclusively terrestrial in their habits, 

 and making nests of dried herbage, sticks, and leaves, they 

 subsist chiefly on insects, grubs, worms, and bulbous and other 

 roots, as well as fallen berries and larger fruits. In consequence 

 of these habits they do much damage to the gardens and corn- 

 fields of the colonists, by whom they are cordially detested. 

 From the large quantity of earth found in their stomachs it is 

 probable that the greater proportion of their food consists of 

 worms. 



It is mentioned by the author of the British Museum cata- 

 logue of Marsupials, that the Australian representatives of the 

 genus fall naturally into two well-defined groups, of which the 





Side View of Teeth and Jaws of a Bandicoot. 



one is typified by Gunn's Bandicoot (Plate XXL), while the 

 other is best represented by the short-nosed species (Plate 

 XXIII.). Had w^e these Australian forms alone to deal with, 

 it might, indeed, be advisable to class these animals under two 

 generic headings. They are, however, so closely connected by 

 the intermediate Papuan forms that any such subdivision is im- 

 practicable ; these annectent forms affording one more instance 

 of the survival of generalised and presumably ancient types in 

 New Guinea to which allusion has been already made. 



