GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND DESCENT. 



21 I 



of a bear; its pace, too, is hobbling or shuffling, and 

 not unlike the awkward gait of that animal. In 

 disposition it is mild and gentle, but it bites hard 

 and becomes furious when provoked, and then utters 

 a low cry between a hissing and a whizzing sound, 

 which cannot be heard at a greater distance than 

 thirty or forty yards.' Mr. Bass chased one of these 

 animals, lifted it off the ground and laid it along 

 his arm, as if carrying a child. It made no noise, 

 nor any effort to escape, not even a struggle. Its 

 countenance was placid and undisturbed, and it ex- 

 hibited no discomposure, although in the course of 

 a mile walk it was frequently shifted from arm to 

 arm, and sometimes laid over the shoulder; when, 

 however, he proceeded to secure it by tying its legs, 

 while he left it to cut a specimen of a new wood, it 

 became irritated, whizzed, kicked, and scratched 

 most furiously, and snapped off a piece from the 

 elbow of Mr. Bass's jacket with its powerful incisors. 



Its temper being now ruffled it remained implacable 

 all the way to the boat, ceasing to kick and struggle 

 only when quite exhausted. 



"Mr. G. Bennett in his Wanderings, speaking of 

 one of these animals kept in a state of domestication 

 at Been in the Sumat country, states that 'it would 

 remain in its habitation till dark, it would then come 

 out and seek for the milk-vessels, and should none 

 be uncovered it would contrive to get off the covers 

 and bathe itself in the milk, drinking at the same 

 time. It would also enter the little vegetable gar- 

 den attached to the station in search of lettuces, for 

 which it evinced much partiality. If none could 

 be found, it would gnaw the cabbage stalks without 

 touching the leaves. Although this animal is very 

 numerous in the most distant parts of the colony, 

 it is difficult to procure, from the great depth to 

 which it burrows.'" Gould, Mammals of Austra- 

 lia^ 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND DESCENT OF THE 



MARSUPIALS. 



The geographical distribution of this group 

 is very simple. The wombats and the mem- 

 bers of the genus Myrmecobius are entirely 

 confined to Australia and Tasmania; the 

 dasyures, the pouched badgers, the kangaroos, 

 and the phalangers, on the other hand, extend 

 beyond this centre both to the north and west 

 into the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, 

 of which Celebes and New Guinea form the 

 nuclei. The non-placental mammals might 

 thus be regarded as an Australasian peculiarity, 

 were it not for the existence of the opossum 

 family in America from the Hudson and the 

 Missouri through the whole of the United 

 States and Mexico to the southernmost point 

 of the South American continent. Only the 

 Old World at the present day has no marsu- 

 pials to show. 



Yet the Old World has known marsupial 

 forms, and that in very early geological epochs. 

 In order to follow the chain of the marsupials 

 back to the oldest representative of the group, 



we must first consider the Quaternary forms, 

 which, like their allies of the present epoch, 

 were confined to the Australian and American 

 regions. 



The bone caves of Brazil and the United 

 States have yielded a number of species of 

 opossums closely allied to the true opossums 

 of the present day, if not identical with these. 



The Myrmecobii, Peramelida, and Phalan- 

 gistida have not yet furnished any Quaternary 

 or older remains. 



The genera Thylacinus and Dasyurus are 

 represented in the Quaternary strata of Aus- 

 tralia. There has been found, moreover, 

 a genus, Thylacoleo, of the size of a lion, 

 which is regarded by Owen as the largest 

 of the carnivorous marsupials, but by Flower 

 and Krafft, on the contrary, as a vegetable 

 feeder standing between the kangaroos and 

 the phalangers. In any case we must await 

 further investigations concerning this extinct 

 type. 



