THE LONG-NOSED BANDICOOT AND THE CHCEROPUS. 145 



scribable mode of carrying themselves. The gait of the Bandicoot is 

 very singular, being a kind of mixture between jumping and running, 

 which is the result of the formation of the legs and feet. 



The food of the Long-nosed Bandicoot is said to be of a purely 

 vegetable nature, and the animal is reported to occasion some havoc 

 among the gardens and granaries of the colonists. Its long and pow- 

 ■erful claws aid it in obtaining roots, and it is not at all unlikely that 

 it may, at the same time that it unearths and eats a root, seize and de- 

 vour the terrestrial larvae which are found in almost every square inch 

 of ground. The lengthen ad nose and sharp teeth, which present so 

 great a resemblance to the same organs in insectivorous shrews, afford 

 good reasons for conjecturing that they may be employed in much the 

 same manner. 



The Chceropus was formerly designated by the specific title of ecau- 

 datus, or " tailless," because the first specimen that had been captured 

 was devoid of caudal appendage, and therefore its discoverers natural- 

 ly concluded that all its kindred were equally curtailed of their fair 

 proportions. But as new specimens came before the notice of the zoo- 

 logical world, it was found that the Choeropus was rightly possessed of 

 a moderately long and somewhat rat-like tail, and that the taillessness 

 of the original specimen was only the result of accident to the indi- 

 vidual, and not the normal condition of the species. The size of the 

 Choeropus is about equal to that of a small rabbit, and the soft, 

 woolly fur is much of the same color as that of the common wild 

 rabbit. 



It is an inhabitant of New South AVales, and was first discovered by 

 Sir Thomas Mitchell on the banks of the Murray River, equally to the 

 astonishment of white men and natives, the latter declaring that they 

 had never before seen such a creature. The speed of the Choeropus is 

 considerable, and its usual haunts are among the masses of dense scrub 

 foliage that cover so vast an extent of ground in its native country. 

 Its nest is similar to that of the bandicoot, being made of dried grass 

 and leaves rather artistically put together, the grass, however, predom- 

 inating over the leaves. The locality of the nest is generally at the 

 foot of a dense bush, or of a heavy tuft of grass, and it is so carefully 

 veiled from view by the mode of its construction that it can scarcely 

 be discovered by the eyes of any but an experienced hunter. 



The head of the Choeropus is rather peculiar, being considerably 

 lengthened, cylindrically tapering toward the nose, so that its form has 

 been rather happily compared to the neck and shoulders of a cham- 

 pagne bottle. The hinder feet are like those of the bandicoots, and 

 there is a small swelling at the base of the toes of the fore-feet, which 

 is probably the representative of the missing joints, more especially 

 as the outermost toes are always extremely small in the bandicoots, to 



13 tr 



