18 MAMIVIALIA. 



more recent litters, adhering to tlieir respective mammaD. It is 

 for this reason that the female Marsupials always possess more 

 mamma) than the nmuber of young produced at each litter. 



Nearly all the Marsupials belong exclusively to the Australian 

 region ; where, moreover, very few other kinds of Mammalia are 

 found. A single family, that of the true Opossums {BidelphidcB) ^ 

 inhabits America. 



That which is amazing is, that we find in this order a series of 

 groups analogous to those of the ordinary Mammalia : Insectivora, 

 Rodentia, Carnivora, Euminantia, Quadrumana. Cuvier was not 

 mistaken, therefore, when he wrote, in 1829, in his Eegne Animal, 

 " One should say that the Marsupials form a class apart, parallel 

 to that of the ordinary quadrupeds, and divisible into like orders." 



This opinion has been still further confirmed by the discovery of 

 fossil remains belonging to some species of great size, which m.ust 

 have corresponded with our Pachj'dermata. Professor Owen and 

 others have made out some fossilized species of this order which 

 were considerably larger than a Horse. 



The remains of Marsupials have been collected in the gypsum 

 strata near Paris, in Auvergne, and in England. In geological 

 times, then, Europe possessed marsupial animals, and perhaps 

 in a verjr remote age the Marsupials composed an entire class, 

 parallel to that of the Mammalia, as Cuvier suggested.* 



The order of Marsupials is divided into four families, viz.: 

 the Phaseolomcs, the Sj'iidactyles, the Dasjoires, and the Opossums 

 or Didelphes. 



The Family of the Phascolomes. — The Phascolomes, or 

 Wombats, are the representatives of the Ilodentia among the 

 Marsupials. Like them, they are characterised by the absence of the 

 canine teeth and the existence of an unoccupied space between the 

 incisors and the molars. Their toes, to the number of five to the 

 extremity of each limb, are provided with nails, suited for digging. 



There is only one genus in this family, and it contains three 

 well-determined species : the Common Wombat {Phascalomys 

 u-omhcd, Fig. 3), the Flat-nosed Wombat (P. p/att/r/iinus), and the 



* The most ancient of known Mammalia occm- in the triassic fomiation. Others 

 n the " dirt-hed " which underlies the lias. The Insectivora, as well as the Marsu- 

 piata, appear to have had representatives at those exceedingly remote geolo"-ical eras. 

 All hitherto discovered were of diminutive size. — En. ° 



