RARE AND UNFAMILIAR ANIMALS 307 



like its many relatives, is an inhabitant of wide sandy districts, and 

 of graceful habits. It is a social little animal, living happily enough 

 in company with its fellows, and constructing burrows in which a 

 large number of young ones are produced. The Indian Gerbil, for 

 example, has from twelve to fifteen or more babies at one time, and 

 thus resembles in fecundity many of its better-known cousins which 

 belong to the Rodentia. 



Gerbils feed for the most part upon roots and grass, but when 

 tenanting cultivated districts they perpetrate much damage among 

 growing crops. The long hind-legs enable the interesting little beasts 

 to take prodigious leaps, the Indian Gerbil being capable of leaping 

 a distance, it is said, of from twelve to fifteen feet. 



CRAB-EATING OPOSSUM. The Crab-Eating Opossum (Fig. 253) 

 brings us to the completion of our present expedition among some 

 of the rarer mammals of the world. A recent popular work on 

 animal life issued in London states that the mammal chosen as 

 worthy of concluding this chapter is the only kind of Marsupial 

 that exists outside the great Australian Continent. This, however, 

 is incorrect, as there are certainly other Marsupials outside Australia 

 beyond the Crab-Eating Opossum, although it is no doubt true 

 that they are little known except by the zoologist. 



The species with which we are now concerned is of arboreal habits, 

 although, curiously enough, it procures its living on the ground, and 

 often resorts to the seashore when its hunger requires appeasing. 

 When on terra-firma its movements are ungainly, but in the tree- 

 tops it finds a congenial habitat, the long prehensile tail enabling 

 it to perform remarkable feats among the pliant branches. It has 

 acquired its name by reason of its partiality for various kinds of 

 small crustaceans, but also eats small mammals, birds and insects. 



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