JERBOA POUCHED-MOUSE— BANDED ANTEATER 



221 



big tussocks of grass and shrubs ; and in the case of larger animals, such as 

 kangaroos, it is doubtless an advantage to be able to take these in their stride, 

 instead of having to go round the obstacle. But neither the jerboa-mouse nor the 

 jerboa-rats are able to accomplish this, on account of their smallness ; and it is 

 particularly noticeable that the creeping placental mice which frequent the same 

 country appear to thrive j ust as well as their leaping compatriots ; and so far as 

 travelling over level ground is concerned, an ordinary mouse is just as well fitted 

 to do this in the shortest possible time and to gain the shelter of a tussock of grass 

 or a shrub when threatened by a hawk as is one endowed with leaping powers. 

 On the other hand, it is quite conceivable that a small animal progressing by leaps 

 and bounds may be much more difficult of capture by a swooping bird-of-prey. 



THE BANDED ANTEATEK. 



Banded 

 Anteater. 



One of the most interesting of all the small insect-eating 

 Australian marsupials of the present section is the species known as 

 the banded anteater (Myrmecobius fasciatus), a somewhat squirrel-like animal 

 which alone represents not only a genus but likewise a special subfamily of the 

 Dasyuridce, if, indeed, it is not entitled to rank as the representative of a family 

 of its own. Among its special characteristics are the absence of a pouch in the 

 female and the unusually large number of its widely spaced and sharply cusped 

 cheek-teeth. From the latter feature the marsupial anteater was long supposed 

 to be a relative of certain small primitive mammals of which jaws and teeth are 

 found in the Oolitic formations of England. These fossil jaws are likewise 

 characterised by the unusually large number of their cheek-teeth; but the 



