250 Pouched Mammals or Marsupials. 



MARSUPIALS. 



"Marsupials are peculiar in the premature production 

 of their young, whose state of development at birth is 

 hardly equal to that of the ordinary foetus a few days 

 after conception. Incapable of motion and hardly exhibit- 

 ing the germs of limbs, or other external organs, these 

 diminutive beings attach themselves to the mammae of the 

 mother, and remain fixed there until they have acquired 

 a degree of development similar to that in which other 

 mammals are born. The skin of the abdomen is so arranged 

 as to form a pouch, in which the imperfect little animals 

 are carried about, as in a second uterus; and to which, 

 long after they are able to walk, they fly for shelter upon 

 the approach of danger. Two particular bones, attached 

 to the pubis, and interposed between the muscles of the 

 abdomen, support the pouch. These bones are also found 

 in the males, and even in those species in which the folds 

 that form the pouch are scarcely visable." 



It is a peculiarity of the Marsupials that in spite 

 of a general resemblance in appearance, the species vary 

 so much in the formation of their teeth, and feet, and 

 organs of digestion, that they really should be separated 

 into several special orders. Cuvier says : ' ' They carry us 

 by insensible gradations, from the Carnivora to the Eoden- 

 tia; and actually form a distinct class, parallel to that of 

 Quadrumana or Primates, and dissolvable into similar 

 orders. ' ' 



R. Ramsey Wright, in an article written for the River- 

 side Natural History, says: 



"A glance at the map of the world will show the very 

 curious distribution of existing Marsupials. All the 

 families but one have their home in the Australian 

 region; that is, either on the continent of Australia, the 

 Island of Tasmania to the south, Papua or New Guinea to 

 the north, Celebes to the northwest, or, finally, on the 

 small islands which lie to the east and west of Papua. 

 The remaining family (the opossums) is confined to 

 South America and the southern parts of North America. 

 The characteristic difference between the Australian and 



