PHALANGERS. 253 
search of insects, worms, and tuberose roots, frequently eating the palm-berries, 
which it holds in its fore-paws after the manner of the phalangers, sitting up on 
its haunches, or sometimes digging the bandicoots. Seldom more than one or two 
are found together, unless accompanied by the young.” It is added that, at least 
in some instances, there are two young at a birth; and that the breeding-season 
is during the rains, which last from February to May. 
EXTINCT KANGAROO-LIKE MARSUPIALS. 
In addition to those of several of the existing species of kangaroos, wallabies, 
and rat-kangaroos, the caverns and superficial deposits of Australia contain 
numerous remains of kangaroos, or kangaroo-like types, some of which attained 
gigantic dimensions. 
One of these (Mac- 
ropus titan) was 
allied to the great 
grey kangaroo, but 
of larger size; while 
others, as MW. brehus, 
appear to have been 
gigantic — wallabies, 
with skulls of as 
much as a foot in 
length. Other species, 
distinguished by the 
characters of their 

permanent premolar SKULL OF AN EXTINCT KANGAROO-LIKE ANIMAL (THE DIPROTODON).— 
After Sir R. Owen. 
teeth, or by the bony 
union of the lower jaw, constitute extinct genera, which have been named 
Sthenwrus, Procoptodon, and the Palorchestes ; the skull of the single representa- 
tive of the latter measuring upwards of 16 inches in length. 
All the above-mentioned types may be included in the Kangaroo family, but 
there were other forms which cannot be included in any existing group. Largest 
of these is the gigantic diprotodon, with a skull of about a yard in length, huge 
chisel-like first upper incisor teeth, and no perforation in the side of the lower jaw. 
This creature, which must have been fully as large as the largest rhinoceros, 
evidently walked on all four limbs in the ordinary manner. Another allied but 
somewhat smaller animal was the notothere, characterised by its extremely short 
skull; it appears to have been to some extent intermediate between the kangaroos 
and the wombats. 
THE PHALANGER TRIBE. 
Family PHALANGERID. 
Under the general term of phalangers—a name referring to the union of the 
second and third toes of the hind-foot—may be included a large number of small 
