58 



MAMMALIAN GALLERY. 



the latter using their prehensile tails by twisting them round that 

 of their mother. 



Fig. 23. 



Opossum (Didelphys laniyera). 



The Yapock (Chironectes) differs from the Opossums by having 

 its toes webbed like those of an otter ; it is wholly aquatic in its 

 habits, and lives on water-beetles and crustaceans. Its colour is 

 of a general ashy-grey, with five or six broad slaty-brown bands 

 across the back, standing out in high relief against the ground- 

 colour of the body. 



7. The family Notoryctidce consists of a single and most remark- 

 able animal recently discovered in the sandy deserts of the centre of 

 Australia, the Marsupial Mole (Notoryctes typhlops). This little 

 animal bears very much the same relation in its structure and habits 

 to the other Marsupials, that the Moles and Golden Moles (p. 26) 

 do to the other Insectivores, and the Rodent Moles (p. 33) do to the 

 other Rodents. It lives entirely underground, burrowing in the 

 sandy soil, and feeding on worms, larvae, &c. Its snout is provided 

 with a peculiar naked pad or shield with which it forces its way 

 through the earth ; its tail is short and entirely naked ; its eyes are 

 practically aborted, as also are its ears ; and its fore feet, with which 

 it burrows, are modified somewhat in the same way as are those of 



