THE RISE OF THE MAMMALIA 127 



Kangaroo and the gigantic extinct Wombat, Diproto- 

 don, follow, or used to follow, a herbivorous habit ; the 

 Phalangers, misnamed Opossums owing to a spurious 

 resemblance to the American Opossums, live in trees 

 and feed on their foliage, while some have developed 

 parachutes and glide from branch to branch like 

 flying-foxes or squirrels ; the Dasyures or native cats 

 are small carnivores, which prey chiefly on birds, and 

 there are larger carnivorous Marsupials which now 

 only survive in Tasmania, the Tasmanian Tiger and 

 the Devil. This does not by any means exhaust the 

 variety exhibited by the Australian Marsupials ; some 

 are of a minute size and live like mice ; others burrow 

 in the ground and have assumed a remarkable resem- 

 blance to moles ; the Wombat feeds on roots and lives 

 like a badger ; the Bandicoot (Perameles) is insecti- 

 vorous or omnivorous. 



But though these animals assume such various 

 guises and follow such a variety of habits, simulating 

 now one class of the higher Mammals and now another, 

 yet they are all characterized by certain peculiar ana- 

 tomical and physiological features which are never 

 found in the higher or Eutherian Mammalia. The 

 most important of these features concern the de- 

 velopment and nutrition of the foetus, the suckling 

 of the young in a pouch, and the almost entire absence 

 of a milk dentition. 



The young of the Marsupials are born in a very 



