ANIMALS OF AUSTRALIA 



remains, the Orycteropus was an inhabitant of the 

 land of Samos and the kingdom of Persia. 



ORDER MARSUPIALS, OR KANGAROOS, WOMBATS 

 AND THE LIKE 



The name marsupial indicates the most salient 

 external feature of this order of mammals, viz. the 

 possession of a pouch. Constantly it will be possible 

 to observe this pouch in the case of kangaroos which 

 happen to have young ones ; for the infant kangaroo 

 can be seen peering out of the maternal pouch. The 

 reason for this pouch, or at any rate a fact which accom- 

 panies the possession of this pouch, is the very imper- 

 fect condition of the newborn young ; they are tiny 

 blind and naked creatures, not longer than the little 

 finger. To the eye of the visitor this pouch is about 

 the only visible character which links together the 

 marsupial tribe. In other external features they 

 differ "very widely indeed. The long-legged, thick- 

 tailed, leaping kangaroos with their long ears, and 

 donkey-like face, are extraordinarily different from 

 the fat marmot-like wombat, or from the comparatively 

 recently discovered marsupial mole, the golden coloured, 

 burrowing Notary ctes. The fierce Tasmanian wolf, 

 Tasmanian devil, and ursine Dasyure, represent another 

 type of this most diverse order, carnivorous in habit 

 and with a smaller pouch backwardly directed instead 

 of forwardly as in the kangaroos. The Phalangers of 

 Australia and the Koala or " native bear " are soft- 

 furred arboreal marsupials, quite as different in external 

 appearance from any of the types that have been 

 mentioned, as are the latter among themselves. The 

 American opossums are different again ; and another 

 extreme of this curiously diverse order is realized by 

 the tiny " flying " forms which skim from branch to 

 branch like the flying squirrels of the order Rodentia. 



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