46 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



Allied to the marmot-like wombat were various tree- 

 frequenting animals, termed phalangers, which feed on 

 leaves, buds, and fruit, some of which naturally recalled 

 to mind flying squirrels, as they were found to be aided 

 in their long jumps by a similar extension of the skin of 

 the flanks to that which exists in such squirrels. Here 

 then we have another approximation on the part of these 

 Australian beasts to the long familiar order of gnawers 

 or rodents. We say ''Australian," but although the 

 first of these animals then discovered was found near 

 Endeavour River, and named after Captain Cook, it was 

 a closely allied form which Seba (as before mentioned) 

 long before received from Amboyna, and regarded as the 

 same animal as the American opossum. 



The mistake was in those early days of zoological 

 science by no means wonderful, for these phalangers 

 presented some very remarkable resemblances to the 

 opossum. Thus in both there was a pouch in the female, 

 in both the tail was prehensile, and in both the hind 

 foot was like a hand, with a well-developed opposable 

 thumb. But if we look closely at the hind foot, we may 

 detect yet another and yet more exceptional character. 

 The two toes which come next after the thumb-like 

 great toe are much smaller than the outer pair and more 

 closely bound together by skin. 



But another and very different set of beasts was also 

 found in Australia. These soon gained the names of 

 " native cats," " native devils," or '' wolves," as the case 

 might be. They are bloodthirsty flesh-eating animals, 

 some of which have been compared to weasels and 

 martens, and, indeed, such is the general resemblance of 

 these creatures to members of the long-known order of 

 ordinary carnivorous beasts, that there is little wonder that 

 even Baron Cuvier placed them within it. Most of them 



