THE DASYURE TRIBE 



H45 



that the soles of the feet are covered with hair or granulated. This species 

 measures three and one-fourth inches in length to the root of the 



*m 



tail; the length of the tail being a little less than three inches. The 

 Pouched 

 Mouse pouched mice of this genus are confined to Australia and Tasmania, 



and since they are terrestrial and insectivorous, they may be compared 

 to the shrews among Placental Mammals. In all the pouch is well developed, and 

 the number of teats varies from eight to ten. 



The last and apparently the rarest of the typical section of the 

 * ' family is the jerboa pouched mouse (Antechinomys laniger), from 



South Queensland and New South Wales, which constitutes a genus 

 by itself. This little creature, which has much the appearance of a sharp-nosed jer- 

 boa, with very large oval ears, and a long tail, becoming bushy at the end, is distin- 

 guished from the members of the preceding genus by the great elongation of the 



v\> 



YELLOW-FOOTED POUCHED MOUSE. 

 (Natural size.) 



hind-limbs, and the total absence of the first toe from the hind-foot. Its form is 

 very slender and graceful, and the soft and fine fur composed almost entirely of 

 under-fur. The general color is pale grizzled gray, with the chin and feet pure 

 white, and the hairs of the under parts gray at the base and white at the tips. The 

 tail, of which the length considerably exceeds that of the head and body, is fawn 

 colored. This pouched mouse inhabits open sandy districts, and is mainly, if not 

 exclusively, terrestrial. It progresses by leaps like a jerboa, and is accompanied in 

 its haunts by the Placental jumping mice of the genus Hapalotis. 



One of the most curious and interesting of all the Australian Mar- 

 supials, is the little banded ant-eater (Myrmecobius fasdatus} \ which 

 derives its special interest from the circumstance that it comes closer 

 to some of the extinct Marsupials of the Secondary rocks of Europe than does any 

 other living type. This animal, which may be compared in size to a squirrel, differs 



Banded Ant- 

 eater 



