7///: H!.\'D I-OOT OK 



[CHAP. 



without a nail, and presents therefore an approximation to 



the next group. 



In the leaf eating, climbing Australian Opossums (Phalan- 



%:sta, Fig. 131; and Koalas < Phaxolarctos) the second and 



ihird toes are al-o very slender, but the fourth and fifth are 

 more equal, especially in length, the 

 foot is broad, and there is a strongly- 

 d.-veloped prehensile and opposable, 

 through nailless, haliu.x. 



The insect- and root eating, ground- 

 dwelling Bandicoots (Piramelid*} dif- 

 fering in many other respects from the 

 Kangaroos, have their hind foot con- 

 structed on txact'.y the same type as in 

 Macrifus. even to the relative length 

 of the different dibits, though there is 

 often a rudiment of the metatarsal of 

 tiie hallux. In one remarkable genus 

 i Ciurrcfus), already mentioned on 

 account of the peculiar structure of the 

 man us (see Fig. 1 1:. p. 310), the same 

 type is carried to a great extreme, the 

 fourth toe (>ee Fig. 137) remaining of 

 a prodigious size, and the fifth being 

 reduced to even smaller dimensions 

 than the second or third. 

 MOXOTREMATA. In both species the seven usual bones 



of the tarsus are complete and distinct, 1 and the five digits 



have the normal number of phalanges. 



1 It has been stated that the culv 1 1 in the Ornithorhynchus is divided 

 into two b >nes, a-< i:i some reptiles, one supporting the fourth and the 

 other the fifth metatarsal ; but this U not the cose in any specimen 

 which I have examined. 



if,. 132. Fonc< f 



foot of Cf!<rr:'flti .. 



naiis (iiat. >uc). 



