May, 1905. 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



107 



cult to know what to say in this connection, as an 

 anonymous writer tells of having seen a family of 

 young ones cut out of a hollow tree without mention- 

 ing whether or no they were in the maternal pouch. 

 On the other hand, the bandicoots {Pcramclcs) and the 

 native cats, or dasyures (Dasyurus), invariably carry 

 their young about in the pouch, although in some of 

 the species of the latter group the offspring make 

 use of that shelter only for a very short period 

 after they have detached themselves from the nipples. 

 Not unfrequently there are six in a litter. Although 

 the members of the Australian genus Fhascologah are 

 commonly called pouched mice, they scarcely deserve 

 that title, since the pouch is generally reduced to a 

 mere fold in the skin of the under-parts, and the young 

 hold on to their mother mainly by the aid of her long 

 hair, in which they are more or less completely con- 

 cealed. From eight to ten young ones have been seen 

 clinging to the nipples of their parents; but how long 

 after being able to move about by themselves they 

 cling to the maternal body, and what proportion the 

 united weight of a litter bears to that of the parent, do 

 not appear to have been recorded. Eight or ten 

 little ones, of whatever size, must, however, be a 

 considerable load for a creature no bigger than an 

 ordinary mouse, so that these little marsupials are 

 certainly entitled to be included in the list of heavily- 

 burdened mothers. There are other Australian mar- 

 supials which carry their young in the pouch, but 

 these need not be specially mentioned. On the other 

 hand, in the curious banded anteater [Myrmccobius 

 fascla/us) the pouch is obsolete, and the young, after 

 becoming detached from the nipples, are probably 

 brought up in some hollow tree. On this point, as 

 well as many others connected with the breeding of 

 marsupials, we are, however, sadly in need of definite 

 information. And here it may be mentioned that few 

 of the numerous collectors who are now sent to all parts 

 of the world to obtain specimens of animals bring back 

 any information with regard to their habits ; their sole 

 object being to kill as many innocent and beautiful 

 creatures as possible, and thus add a few more names 

 to the already overburdened list of species and sub- 

 species. The infinitely more important life-histories of 

 the creatures are left alone. This is a great pity, for, 

 without in any way decrying the importance of 

 systematic and anatomical investigations, the life- 

 histories of animals undoubtedly deserve our best at- 

 tention. 



Another Australian mammal, the spiny anteater 

 (Echidna aculcata), must receive special mention here, 

 since it is one of the egg-laying group, and during the 

 breeding season the female carries her two eggs about 

 with her in a temporary pouch till they are hatched. 

 In what stage of development the young are hatched 

 does not, however, seem to be ascertained, neither 

 does there appear to be any information with regard 

 to the length of their sojourn in the pouch after hatch- 

 ing. 



We have already seen that bats of all kinds habitu- 

 ally carry their young about them until sufficiently 

 old to fly by themselves; and it is obvious that all 

 flying mammals must either follow this practice, or 

 keep their young in nests to which periodical visits 

 are paid. The flying-squirrels (not the marsupials 

 wrongly so-called), which, by the way, do not really 

 fly, but merely take long flying leaps by the aid of the 

 parachute-like expansion of the skin of the flanks, 

 adopt the former plan. On the other hand, the curi- 

 ous flying-lemurs, or cobegos {GaleopUhccus), of the 



Malay countries and the Philippines, which also merely 

 take flying leaps, carry their young about with them 

 in the same manner as bats. Dr. A. R. Wallace, for 

 instance, describes shooting a female cobego, to whose 

 breast adhered a small, blind, and naked young one, 

 which reminded the observer of the helpless offspring 

 of marsupials, although it was in a somewhat more 

 developed condition. How long the young cobego 

 makes use of its parent as a kind of flying-machine, 

 and to what extent the mother is hampered by the 

 weight of her offspring, are, however, interesting 

 points in regard to which we have again to deplore a 

 total lack of information. 



The only other mammals that habitually carry their 

 young are the members of the order Primates, which 

 includes the human species, apes, monkeys, and 

 lemurs. Among these, except when the task is 

 delegated to the husband, the nursemaid, or the 

 perambulator, the practice is universal on the part of 

 the female ; the male apparently never taking upon 

 himself the duties of nurse among mammals other than 

 man. In the case of monkeys and apes the young 

 appear to be generally carried clinging to the breast 

 of their mother or on her back. Some of the lemurs 



Fig. 4.— Female Lemur and her Baby. (From .Sclater, Troc. Zool. Soc.) 



at any rate have, however, an altogether peculiar 

 method of carrying their living burden, the young 

 lying transversely across the abdomen of the female 

 parent, with its head on one flank and its tail on the 

 other (Fig. 4). In this strange position the baby lemur 

 is probably carried with less inconvenience than would 

 be the case in any other way; and since the young of 

 these animals appear to be thus carried till they are 

 of comparatively large size, such a consideration is of 

 considerable importance. 



In conclusion, it may be mentioned that two points 

 are brought into prominent notice in this article. 

 Firstly, the wonderful amount of care the mothers of 

 many species of mammals devote to the well-being of 

 their offspring, and the amount of physical labour and 

 endurance they are willing to undergo for this object. 

 Secondly, the extremely imperfect state of our know- 

 ledge with regard to the breeding habits of many of 

 the species noticed in the foregoing paragraphs, and 

 the urgent need that exists for careful observation on 

 these and other habits if zoology is to be raised to 

 something more than a mere catalogue of species and 

 description of anatomical details. 



