OF THE UNITED STATES did 



the family Macropodidce, as well aw the remarkable animals con- 

 stituting the family Phalangistidw, and the family Phascolo- 

 myhlce, but these are only referred to in order to show what a 

 great variety of relatives our common United States Opossum 

 has in those far-off regions; howbeit, it must not be forgotten 

 that although the marsupial family Didelphidw are thus related 

 the gap sometimes separating them is quite profound, as for ex 

 ample, the one that divides the Didelphidw from the Peramelidce 

 In other words, an American Opossum and a Bandicoot (P 

 gunnii) are two wonderfully different animals, and in the future, 

 the more we know of their anatomy, the more will this fact come 

 to be appreciated. 



The fossil bones of opossums found in the bone-caves of Brazil, 

 belonged to types of didelphian species either identical with or 

 closely allied to those forms now existing in the same countrv. 



