48o 



ANIMAL LIFE-HISTORIES 



to their safety. Hudson (in The Nahu^alist in La Plata) thus 

 describes this habit for a larger species: — " I have c.een an old 

 female opossum i^Didelphys Azarc?) with eleven young, large as 

 old rats — the mother being less than a cat in size — all clinging to 

 various parts of her body; yet able to climb swiftly and with the 

 greatest agility in the higher branches of a tree. . . . The opossum 

 never quitted its hold on the tree, and it also supplemented its 



Fig. 998. — Azara's Opossum i^Didelphys Azane) carrying her Young 



hand-like feet, furnished with crooked claws, with its teeth and 

 long prehensile tail " (fig. 998). 



The bringing up of young ones in safety is sometimes pro- 

 moted by the existence of special dwellings, as in burrowing 

 forms such as the Wombat {Phascolomys) and Lesueur's Kan- 

 garoo-Rat {Bettongia Lestieuri). The Red Kangaroo- Rat [Aipy- 

 p7yninus rtifescens) builds a neat nest under a fallen tree or in 

 some other convenient situation. Maternal affection does not 

 appear to be so strongly developed in some, at least, of the 

 Marsupials as it is in higher Mammals, for cases have been 

 described of female Kangaroo- Rats and Kangaroos which, when 

 pursued, have consulted their own safety by allowing the young 

 ones to slip out of the pouch. 



Higher Mammals (Eutheria). — These are divided into 



