62 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



are there preserved as in a second matrix, and even 

 after they have learned to walk, they constantly re- 

 turn hither when they apprehend any danger. Two 

 peculiar bones, attached to the pubis and interposed 

 within the muscles of the abdomen, afford a support 

 to the pouch, and, strange to say, are found in the 

 males as well as females, and in those species where 

 the fold of skin which constitutes the pouch is 

 scarcely visible. 



The matrix of the animals of this family is not 

 opened by a single orifice in the bottom of the va- 

 gina ; but it communicates with this canal by two 

 lateral tubes in the form of a handle. It would seem 

 that the premature birth of the young is connected 

 with this very singular organization. The males have 

 the scrotum situated in front of the penis, unlike all 

 other quadrupeds. Another peculiarity of the mar- 

 supiata is, that notwithstanding a general resem- 

 blance between the species, so striking, that for a 

 long period they were formed but into a single genus, 

 yet they differ so strongly in the teeth, feet, and or- 

 gans of digestion, that were these characters rigo- 

 rously attended to, these animals might be divided 

 among various orders. We find in them insensible 

 shades from the carnassiers to the rodentia, and 

 without attending to the peculiar bones of the pouch, 

 and regarding all which possess them as marsupiata, 

 many might be found which it would be proper to 

 insert among the Edentata ; and, in fact, we shall 

 have them there under the name of Monotr ernes. 

 We might say, in a word, that the Marsupiata 



