>4 CLASS I. MAMMALIA. ORJ>EIl IX. MARSUPIALIA. 



to them till they have attained the size of a mouse, which ig 

 not until the fiftieth day, when also they first open their eyes 

 They continue to return into the pouch, until they reach the 

 size of a rat. 



The Phalangers are found in the Moluccas and New Hol- 

 land. Their tails are long, covered with scales, and prehen- 

 sile. They live upon trees, and subsist upon insects and 

 fruit. When any one approaches them, they suspend them- 

 selves by the tail, until they fall, through mere fatigue, to 

 the ground. The Phalanger volans, or Great Flying Opos- 

 sum, is about the size of a common cat, and resembles, in 

 many respects, the flying squirrel. Like that animal, it is 

 provided with the power of extending the loose skin of its 

 sides when it stretches out its legs, so as in some measure to 

 buoy itself in the air, whilst leaping from one tree to another. 

 It can leap in this way to the distance of a hundred yards. 



The Merian Opossum is remarkable for its method of car- 

 rying its young. It conveys them on its back, where they 

 fix themselves by twisting their tails closely about that of their 

 parent, clinging with their claws to its fur. 



Th Kangaroo is the largest animal of this order, and the 

 largest quadruped which has been discovered in New Holland. 

 It is sometimes six feet in height, and is distinguished by the 

 great disproportion in length between its fore and hind legs ; 

 the former being only one foot and a half long, but the latter 

 three feet and a half. In consequence of this, they cannot 

 walk upon all fours without difficulty, but leap with great 

 power and to a prodigious distance, sometimes twenty feet, 

 and to the height of nine feet. They sit upon their hind legs 

 whilst at rest, seldom using the fore legs, except for support- 

 ing themselves when stooping to drink, for conveying food to 

 the mouth, and for digging in the earth. But although dis- 

 proportionately long, as has just been observed, when full 

 grown, the hind legs of the Kangaroo at birth are not so 

 large or so strong as the fore legs, which are more necessary, 

 in order to favor the motions of the little animal while in 

 the pouch. 



The Ornithorhynchus has not the pouch, like the opossum 

 and kangaroo, but has the marsupial bones, and is therefore 

 to be enumerated under this order. It is a most singular and 

 anomalous animal, and approaches, in some particulars, to a 

 resemblance to birds. Its mouth is very much like the bill 

 of the duck ; it has a bone resembling the fourchette ot 

 wishing-bone of birds ; it has no nipples for nursing its young 



