MARSUPIALIA. 495 



opposable to the other fingers. The koala is a slow animal 

 which feeds on the foliage of the trees in which it spends its 

 existence. 



The typical group of the Carpophagous Marsupials is that of 

 the Pkalangistida or Phalangers, so called because the second 

 and third digits of the hind-feet are joined together almost to 

 their extremities. The family includes a number of small 

 Marsupials, fitted for an arboreal existence, to which end the 

 hallux is opposable and nail-less, whilst the four remaining toes 

 of the hind-feet have long curved claws. The tail, too, is 

 generally very long, and its tip is usually prehensile. The 

 Phalangers are all small nocturnal animals which live upon 

 fruits and other vegetable food. The best known of them is 

 the Australian Opossum (Phalangista vulpind). which must not 

 be confounded with the true or American Opossums, which 

 belong to another section of the Marsupialia. The Phalangers, 

 namely, are distinguished from the Opossums properly so 

 called, amongst other characters, by their dentition, the 

 canine teeth being always very small and functionally use- 

 less in the lower jaw, and sometimes in the upper jaw as 

 well. The Phalangista vulpina is nocturnal and arboreal in 

 its habits, and its flesh is esteemed a great delicacy by the 

 native Australians, with whom opossum-hunting is a favourite 

 pursuit. 



The flying Phalangers or Petauri are closely allied to the 

 true Phalangers, but differ in not having a prehensile tail, and 

 in having a fold of skin extending on each side between the 

 sides of the body and the fore and hind limbs. By the help 

 of these lateral membranes the Petauri can take extensive leaps 

 from tree to tree ; but though called " flying" Phalangers, they 

 have no power of flight properly so called. They are beautiful 

 little animals, nocturnal in their habits, and having the body 

 clothed with a soft and delicate fur. 



d. Entomophaga. In this section the jaws are always 

 furnished with canine teeth, but these are not of very large 

 size, and the animals composing the section are therefore not 

 highly predacious, but "prey, for the most part, on the smaller 

 and weaker classes of invertebrate animals." In this section 

 are the Bandicoots (Peramelid(E\ the American Opossums 

 (DiddphidcK)) and the Banded Ant-eater (Myrmecobius). 



The Bandicoots (Peramelidcz) are small Australian animals, 

 which appear to fill the place of the Hedgehogs, Shrew-mice, 

 and other small Insectivora of the Old World. The hind- 

 limbs in the Bandicoots are considerably longer than the fore- 

 limbs, and their progression is therefore by a series of bounds. 



