2 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



upon the consideration of the Marsupial animals. It is 

 easy to see that inasmuch as they include groups or genera 

 possessed of teeth as various as in the whole class, and, con- 

 sequently, of manners and habits equally different, there is 

 an impropriety in treating them merely as one division of 

 the flesh-eating Mammalia, but it is not so easy to discover 

 any other mode of arrangement that will not be without its 

 objections. 



If the Marsupiata be treated as a distinct order, (which, 

 if we were to express an opinion, appears to us the least ob- 

 jectionable arrangement,) it might be said that the order 

 includes animals which by their several habits might, with 

 propriety, be referred to all the other orders of Mammalia ; 

 and therefore that the better plan would b<fto make the 

 Marsupiata a class, and to divide its genera into orders con- 

 current with those of the Mammalia now established. In 

 short, opinions and plans might be as various as indivi- 

 duals, if every one were to assume the office of zoological 

 legislator. 



Allowing, therefore, to our author the credit of seeing 

 and feeling these and similar difficulties which attend his 

 arrangement, the most prudent course appears to be, to 

 guide one's judgment by his, and to conclude that, all things 

 considered, his determination is most likely to be the least 

 objectionable in practical application. 



The principal trait in which these animals all agree, 

 (however various in other points), is the existence of the 

 abdominal pouch, from which their name is taken, being 

 derived from the Latin word Marsupium, which signifies a 

 purse. 



Pouched animals were known at first only in America : 

 all the species found on that continent agree so completely 

 in general organization, as well as in this peculiar con- 

 formation of the genitals, that Linnseus found in them the 

 elements of a single genus, which he called Didelphis, or 

 double-wombed. 



