290 



VERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 



being now amalgamated with the shoulder-blade. The intes- 

 tine does not terminate in a cloaca. 



Though the Marsupialia form an extremely natural order, 

 sharply separated from the other Mammals, they include a 

 large number of varied forms. In fact, this order, from its 

 being the almost exclusive possessor of a continent so large as 

 Australia, has to discharge, in the general economy of nature, 

 functions which are elsewhere performed by several orders. 

 As regards their geographical distribution, with the single 



Fie. 143.— Marsupialia. The Koala or Kanpiroo-bear (Pliascolarctos Hnerewe). 

 (After Gould.) 



exception of the family Didelphidm (the true Opossums), the 

 whole order of the Marsupials is exclusively confined to Aus- 

 tralia, Van Diemen's Land, New Guinea, and the adjacent 

 islands. 



The Marsupials may be primarily divided into the vege- 

 table-eating and rapacious or carnivorous forms — the former 

 characterized by the absence or rudimentary condition of the 

 canine teeth, the molars having broad, grinding crowns; 

 while in the latter there are well-developed canines, and the 

 molars are not adapted for grindinar. Of the vegetable-eating 

 forms, the best known are the Kangaroos {3facropodid(B\ 

 distinguished by the remarkable disproportion between the 



