1908.] ANTEOHIN^OMYS AND OTHER MARSUPIALS. 567 



Phascologale 2^^nicillata there was also a considerable dilatation 

 at about the middle of each vagina. The two vaginfe and the 

 bladder open into the common external canal at about the same 

 level. I did not notice any trace of a median cul-de-sac of the 

 iiteri in the larger species, whose genitalia appeared to be 

 rather more mature and were in any case larger than those of 

 P. macdoiiellensis. 



III. On the Intestinal Tract in some Marsupials, compared 

 toith that of other Mammals. 



Some of the general features of the intestinal tract in many 

 Marsupials are already well known. It is well known through 

 the investigations of many (e.g., Owen*, Forbes t, Beddard J, 

 Parsons §, Lonnberg ||, Klaatsch *i\, Mitchell **, &c.) that the 

 large intestine of the Dij^rotodont Marsupials is as a rule ft very 

 long relatively, even — it may be — much longer than the small 

 intestine. In those Polyprotodontia in which a caecum is 

 present to mark the junction of the two regions of the gut, it 

 is plain that the large intestine is relatively shorter, but not 

 so short as in the Carnivora. These facts are shown graphically 

 for six species of Marsupials by Dr. Mitchell. Though doubtless 

 it is not asserted that the figures referred to exhibit with 

 absolute accuracy the relative lengths of the large and small 

 gut, it is clear that they make a very fair approximation to 

 accuracy. 



Furthermore, it is at least highly probable that more accurate 

 figures could not have been compiled. For it is well known 

 that the relative lengths of the two sections of the gut are apt 

 to vary. For example it has been asserted by Brants (quoted by 

 Tullberg JJ) that in 30 examples of Mus decumanus the relative 

 lengths of the small and large intestine fluctuated between a 

 small intestine ten times the length of the large, and a large 

 intestine which was only one third of the length of the small 

 intestine. Tullberg himself, in a series of very careful measure- 

 ments of eight examples of the common rat, made upon specimens 

 prepared in exactly the same fashion, found not so great but 

 yet a considerable fluctuation. The extremes in two rats of 

 equal size were in one example a small intestine of 808 mm. and 

 a large intestine 201 mm., in the other the small intestine 

 835 mm. and the lare-e intestine 186 mm. It is therefore 



* Dendrolaffus inustns, P. Z. S. 1852, p. 103. 

 t Fhaseolarctos cinereus, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 180. 

 X Dendrolagus bennetti, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 131. 

 § P. Z. S. 1896, p. 683. 

 |l Several species, P. Z. S. 1902, i. p. 12. 

 i Morph. JB. 1892. 



** Several species, Tr. Z. S. 1905, vol. xvii. p. 437. 



ft To which at any rate Petaurus hreviceps, an insect-eating Diprotodont, is 

 an exception. See Lonnberg, loe. cit. p. 14. 

 tX " l^^eber das System der Nagethiere," Nova Acta Reg. Soc. Upsala, ser. ii. 1899. 



