Order 5. 



EODENTIA. 



95 



would tberefore be necessary to rank among the Rodenfia. We should even have placed it there, 

 had vve not been gradually led to it by an uninterrupted series from the Opossums to the Phalaa- 

 gers. thence to the Kangaroos, and from the Kangaroos to the Wombat.* Their reproductive oi-gans 

 are entirely similar to those of other Marsupiata. 



They are sluggish animals, with large flat heads, and bodies that appear as if crushed. They are 

 Nvithout a tail ; have five nails on each of the fore-feet, and four, with a small tubercle in place of a 

 thumb, on each of the hind ones, all very long and adapted for burrowing. Their gait is remarkably 

 slow. They have two long incisors to each jaw, almost similar to those of tlie Rodentia, [but which 

 oppose flat surfaces to each other, and not chisel-like edges, as in the latter] ; and their grinders have 

 each two transverse ridges. 



They subsist on herbage, and have a large and pear-formed stomach, and short and wide coecimi, 

 furnished (like that of Man and the Ourang-outang) with a vermiform appendage. The penis is forked, 

 as in the Opossums. 



One species only is known (Did. ursina, Shaw) ; of the size of a Badger ; the fur abundant, and of a more or less 

 yellowish-brown. It is found in Van Diemen's Land, where it lives in its burrow; and breeds readily in confine- 

 ment. ITie flesh is said to be excellent. [The skin of this animal is remarkably thick, and curiously attached to 

 the hip-bones : its eyes are unusually small. MTien attacked, it grunts like a Pig ; and is found at various eleva- 

 tions, burrowing in the forests and low grounds, and retiring to crevices in the upper. To the colonists, it is 

 generally known as the Badger. 



The Marsupiata are distributed by Prof. Owen, in conformity with the structure of their 

 digestive organs, as follows : — 



1. The coecum altogether absent. — Thylucynus, Dasyurus, Phascogale, and probably 

 Myrmecobius. 



2. "With a small coecum. — Bidelphis and Cheironectes j Perameles, and probably Thy- 

 lacomys. 



3. Coecum of large size. — Phascolarctos, Phalangista, Petaurus. 



4. The stomach compUcated. — Macropus and Hypsiprymnus. 



5. Coecum with a vermiform appendage. — Phascalomys- 



This arrangement appears to be perfectly in accordance with the affinities of these animals : 

 though, at the same time, it may be added that the Wombat (Phascalomys) might properly 

 form a distinct order of Ovovivipera.'] 



THE FIFTH ORDER OF MAMMALIANS. 



RODENTIA. 



"We have just seen, in the Phalangers, canines so small, that we can hardly consider them 

 as such. The nutriment of these animals, accordingly, is chiefly derived from the vegetable 

 kingdom. Their intestines are long, and the coecum simple ; and the Kangaroos, which have 

 no canines at all, subsist on vegetables only. The "Wombat might commence that series of 

 animals of which we are now about to speak, and which have a system of manducation even 

 less complete. 



Two large incisors in each jaw, separated from the molars by a wide interval, cannot well 

 seize a living prey, or devour flesh. They are unable even to cut the ahment; but they 

 serve to file, and by continued labour, to reduce it into small particles ; in a word, to gnaw 

 it ; hence the name Rodentia applied to the animals of this order : it is thus that they suc- 



• This (gradation is, huwcver, more apparent than real, as regards 

 the Wombat, which differs from all other Marsupintn in the persist- 

 ency of the formative pulps of its teeth, which, in cousequeuce, 



never cease growing at the base, as their crowns wear away by 

 attrition. — Ed 



