tendency is now to regard the presence of a similar feature in the marsupial ant- 

 eater, not as an inherited primitive feature, but a secondary modification due to a 

 kind of degradation. 



In accordance with the large number of its cheek-teeth, the banded anteater 

 has unusually long and slender jaws, and as its food consists chiefly of ants and 

 other insects, the tongue, like that of other anteaters, is long, worm-like, and 

 capable of being protruded far in advance of the muzzle. The shape of this 

 animal is, as already mentioned, distinctly squirrel-like, and the coarse and bristly 

 fur is white below and dark chestnut-brown above, marked on the back with 

 several broad white transverse bands, or perhaps the coloration of this part might 

 be better described as white with reddish brown bands. Although it will 

 occasionally climb trees, the banded or marsupial anteater is in the main a ground- 

 dwelling animal, choosing situations where hollow tree- trunks and ants' nests are 

 abundant. Its distributional area embraces New South Wales and the southern 

 districts of Queensland. 



The numerous species of Australian marsupials known as bandi- 

 coots, which are not to be confounded with the animals called by the 

 same name in India, are carnivorous or insectivorous in diet, but have the second 

 and third hind-toes very small and united by skin in the same way as in 

 kangaroos and the Australian opossums. This resemblance between the hind-feet 

 of the bandicoots and the Phalangeridce is the more remarkable seeing that, apart 

 from the fact that both are pouched mammals, no other signs of relationship have 

 been detected between the two groups, in which the fore-feet are quite unlike. In 

 bandicoots (Peramelidce) the first and fifth front toes are almost or completely 

 rudimentary, while the three middle ones, or at least two of these, are of uniform 

 length and furnished with well-developed claws. A peculiarity in the skeleton is 

 that the terminal bones of the larger toes in both pair of feet are cleft at the tips 

 like those of pangolins. The more typical members of the genus are characterised 

 by the clawless small first and fifth front-toes, the same feature also existing in 

 the first hind-toe ; and likewise by the difference in the length of the fore and the 

 hind limbs not being so great as in the other members of the group. As regards 

 habits, those species which are nocturnal and sleep by day excavate burrows 

 as hiding-places and harbours of refuge in cases of danger. In the short-nosed 

 bandicoot (Perameles obesula) of Tasmania and the mainland south of the tropics, 

 the ears are short and rounded, the hair is mingled with short spines, and the soles 

 of the hind-feet are completely naked ; the length of the head and body being about 

 14 inches, and that of the tail 5£. A second division of the group is represented by 

 Gunn's bandicoot (P. gunni), of Tasmania, which is about 16 inches in length to the 

 root of the tail, the tail itself measuring less than 4 inches. In colour this species 

 is grizzled yellowish brown above, and white or yellowish white below and on the 

 chin, with four or more pale transverse stripes on the hind part of the back ; while 

 it is further characterised by the hairy posterior half of the sole of the hind-foot, 

 and the length of the pointed ears, which if turned forwards reach the eyes. 



Rabbit- The two known species of rabbit-bandicoot take their name 



Bandicoot, from the excessive length of their ears, other characteristics being 



the presence of a crest of long hairs on the terminal portion of the tail, the length 



