20 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 
folding of the abdominal integument for the safe lodgment of the newly-born young. 
These young are, furthermore, brought forth at a very early and rudimentary -stage 
of their development, and there is not that pre-natal union with the mother through 
the medium of an allantoic placenta that is the rule among all higher mammals. Ac- 
cording, however, to the most recent investigations, a rudimentary development of this 
embryological structure occurs in one of the Bandicoots, Perameles. 
Within the limits of the Marsupialian order the modifications in form and 
habits of its component members are almost as marked as those which are found 
throughout the entire range of the higher mammalian groups of the Eutheria. True 
carnivora are thus traced in such predatory types as the so-called Tasmanian tiger or 
wolf, Thylacinus cynocephalus, and the Tasmanian Devil, Sarcophilus ursinus. These 
two forms, while now living only in the southern island of Tasmania, were, as shown 
by their fossil remains, formerly represented by identical or closely allied species on the 
Australian mainland. A circumstance, however, of even higher interest and significance 
is the discovery within the past two years of the fossil remains of a species, 
Prothylacinus patagonicus, in the tertiary deposits of Patagonia, which apparently 
closely resembled the Tasmanian Thylacine in habits and structure. These remains, 
together with those of many other Marsupial types having distinct Thylacine and 
Dasyurine affinities, have been figured and described at length by Florentino Ameghino 
in the Brazilian “Bulletin of the Academy of Cordova” for the year 1894. 
Passing on to the so-called Australian native cats or Dasyures, ‘usually dis- 
tinguished by their profusely spotted plan of ornamentation, there may be said to be a 
considerable approximation to the Viverrine or Civet and Ichneumon group of the 
carnivora; while in Myrmicobius, a small Western and Southern Australian type, the 
habits and correlated conformation of the attenuate snout and abnormally elongate pro- 
trusible tongue closely correspond with those of the higher ant-eaters. The only known 
existing species, Myrmicobius fasciatus—tfrequently misnamed a “squirrel” in those dis- 
tricts of Western Australia where it most abounds—is of special interest, since it possesses 
a larger number of teeth than any existing Marsupial. In this respect and also in their 
character, the teeth of Myrmicobius coincide closely with those of certain primitive 
mammalian types, such as Amphilestes, Amblotherium and allied forms, which occur in 
the upper jurassic formations of both Europe and the United States. 
The Bandicoots, Perameles and its allies, include numerous small forms, the 
largest not exceeding a rabbit in size. Their habits are partly vegetarian and 
partly imsectivorous. In the latter respect, as also in their general form and usually 
