DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS 



539 



of the other continents. The quadrupeds here are marsu- 

 pials, animals which usually carry their young in a pouch. 

 The only members of the family existing at present else- 

 where are the American opossums. The largest of the 

 marsupials is the great kangaroo, which measures between 

 seven and eight feet from its nose to the tip of its tail. Al- 

 though it has four feet, yet it runs by making extraordinary 



KANGAROO FEEDING 



leaps with its strong hind feet. Here is also found one of 

 the most singular of all living animals, the duckbill, the 

 lowest of all quadrupeds, which in its characteristics re- 

 sembles both quadrupeds and birds. 



All this seems to show that the distribution and devel- 

 opment of the animals of the different continents have been 

 largely dependent upon the former geographical relations 

 of the land masses. The native animals of a region are 



