THE LONG-NOSED BANDICOV?. 117 
The food of the LONG-NOSED BANDICOOT is said to be of a purely veget- 
able nature, and the animal is reported to occasion some huvoc among the 
LONG-NOSED BANDICOOT.—(Perameles nasuta.) 
gardens and granaries of the colonists. Its long and powerful claws aid it 
in obtaining roots, and it is not at all unlikely that it may, at the same time 
that it unearths and eats a 
root, seize and devour the 
terrestrial larvae which are 
found in almost every 
square inch of ground. The 
lengthened nose and sharp 
teeth which present so 
great a resemblance to the 
same organs in insectivor- 
ous shrews, afford good 
reasons for conjecturing 
that they may be employed 
in much the same manner. 
The CH@ROPUS was for- 
merly designated by -the 
specific title of ecaudatus, or 
“tailless,” because the first 
specimen that had been 
captured was devoid of 
caudal appendage, and 
therefore its discoverers 
naturally concluded that alt 
its kindred were equally 
curtailed of their fair pro- 
portions. But as new speci- 
mens came before the notice 
of the zoological world, it 
was found thatthe Chceropus 
CHEROPUS.—(Charopus castanotis.) 
was rightly possessed of a moderately long and somewhat rat-like tail, and 
that the taillessness of the original specimen was only the result of accident 
