110 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 



to which she had otherwise so universally adhered- 

 That particular form, for instance, which, in other parts 

 of the world, she has given to the smallest race of qua- 

 drupeds, — the rats and dormice, — she here bestows 

 upon the kangaroos, the largest animals throughout the 

 whole of Australia ! Yet still the analogy, although 

 unquestionable, is apparently reversed, and most artfully 

 disguised ; for these wonderful creatures, instead of 

 fabricating, like their representatives, warm and skilful 

 nests, beneath the earth, for the protection of their 

 young, are provided with a natural nest in the folds of 

 their own skin. The marsupial pouch is expressly 

 adapted to this purpose ; and within this warm maternal 

 nest are the young protected until they can provide for 

 themselves. The great kangaroo {Halmaturus gigan- 



teus 111., fig. 53.), 

 is the largest qua- 

 druped of the Aus- 

 tralian range ; and 

 although a few other 

 marsupial animals 

 occur beyond these 

 limits, nearly all 

 the quadrupeds of 

 Australia belong to this> tube. Whether the kanga- 

 roos belong to the Linnsean order of Glires, or to 

 another adjoining group, has not yet, indeed, been 

 satisfactorily determined ; but we feel persuaded, from 

 analysis, that the celebrated Ornithorhynchus , peculiar 

 to these regions, is the link of connection between qua- 

 drupeds and birds, and that this passage is effected, 

 not by means of the Glires, but by the most aberrant 

 groups of the ungulated quadrupeds. Two thirds of 

 the Australian quadrupeds, in fact, are marsupial, and 

 make their way with more rapidity by springing in the 

 air than by walking. The kangaroos, when using any 

 degree of speed, proceed by prodigious leaps ; while the 

 flying phalangers (G. Petam-uta), of which six species 

 are described, are even more remarkable for this habit 



