386 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGT. 



Fig. 303.— Mebian's Opossum.* 



among the branches of a tree. But the young Opossums 

 adopt a ready mode of guarding against the danger of a fall, 

 by entwining their long tails round the tail of their mother. 



Oeder EODENTIA.t— EODENTS ok GNAWING 



ANIMALS. 



The preceding order was composed exclusively of animals be- 

 longing to foreign countries. The present is well represented 

 among our native quadrupeds, as the British species amount to 

 fourteen in number, and are illustrative of some of the most 

 important families. The characteristics of the group are so 

 well developed in the Eat and the Mouse, that the family to 

 which they belong is regarded as typical of the order. 



In the precise language of Mr. Jenyns the order is thus 

 defined : — " Incisors two in each jaw, large and strong, remote 

 from the grindei's ; tusks none ; toes distinct with small coni- 

 cal claws." J The total number of species is six hundred and 

 four, being two-fifths or nearly one-half of the entire number 

 of mammalia known at the present time.§ 



* Fig. 303. Didelphys dorsigera, a native of Surinam, described and 

 figured by Madame Merian, in the year 1719. 



t From the Latin rodere, to gnaw ; roJens, gna'wing. The term glires is 

 also ap|ilied to the present order, from tlie Latin glis, (jUris, a Dormouse. 



I Manual of British Vertebrate Animals. 



^ G. R. Waterhouse, Esq , in Berghaiis and JohjKton's Physical Atlaa. 



