V. AUSTRALIAN MAMMALIA. 39 



V. 



AUSTRALIAN MAMMALIA. 



ORDER MARSUPIALIA.— Australia is remarkable for an 

 order of animals almost peculiarly its own — the Marsupials — which 

 have no living representatives elsewhere, if we except the single 

 family which contains the true Opossums {Didelphidce), found 

 in America (see page 38). The name is derived from the Latin 

 marsupium, a pouch, and is given to these animals because the 

 females of all species are provided with a pouch, into which they 

 convey the young immediately after birth, and in which they nurse 

 them until they are capable of caring for themselves. Marsupials 

 are brought forth at a much earlier stage of development than 

 is usual among mammals, and when first placed in the pouch 

 they adhere so firmly to the nipples as to give some apparent 

 foundation for the popular error that they grow there like buds 

 on a tree. The skeleton has the general characteristics of all 

 mammals, but is peculiar in having also what are known as the 

 " marsupial bones," which consist of a pair of small bones attached 

 to the pelvis, supposed to support the pouch. The skull is elongate, 

 and the brain large ; the angle of the lower jaw is bent inwards ; 

 and there are other peculiarities which will be noticed under the 

 difierent species. 



The Marsupials include Herbivorous, Carnivorous, and Insectivor- 

 ous forms. In other words the land Mammals of Australia, with the 

 exception of the Dingo, the indigenous Rats and Mice, and the Bats, 

 are all Marsupials, and have become adapted to widely different 

 habits and modes of life, some being herbivorous, some frugi- 

 vorous, some insectivorous, some carnivorous, some fleet runners, 

 and some living habitually in trees. There are, however, if we 

 except the Tasmanian Tiger, no large carnivorous mammals among 

 them. Some remarkable fossil forms have been discovered, which 



