82 MAMMALIAN DESCEXT. [Lect. III. 



the Eiitlieria slioiild increase, and multiply, and fill the 

 land, then she practically culled out, and appointed for 

 slaughter, these poor silly pouch-bearers, the Metatheria/ 



adde:n^t)a to lecture hi. 



Tke numerous forms, still happily existing, of the Marsupials, have 

 given rise to so large an amount of biological activity, that it is 

 impossible here to mention more than one or two quarters where 

 treasures of this kind are to be found. Of course, the late Mr 

 Gould's valuable works are to be referred to, and also the inij^ortant 

 papers, with illustrations, that from time to time appear in the 

 publications of the Zoological Society. 



The reader interested in their anatomy may refer to the works, 

 given in the first list, of Professors Huxley and Flower, and to my 

 own pajDer on the " Shoulder-Girdle and Sternum," where those parts 

 of the marsupial skeleton are described. An excellent and well- 

 illustrated memoir on the muscles of the limbs and other parts of 

 the anatomy of this group, by Dr. Cunningham, will be found in the 

 CliaUenrier Mejwrts, vol. v. 



Remains of the huge extinct forms of those types of the 

 Australian region long ago found their historian in Sir Richard 

 Owen, and invaluable papers, freely illustrated, describing those 

 huge creatures, will be found in the Philosophical Transactions ; for 

 twenty-five years these have been gradually coming to the light. 



These are but a fraction or division of his work. The huge 

 extinct relatives of the Goose, the Rail, and the Emeu — from another 

 part of the Australian region, New Zealand — have also been revealed 



1 From all that we can gather of the history of the "stocking" of the earth 

 by mammals, the low-brained kinds have always given way to those with 

 more developed brains. The utmost specialisation of peripheral parts cannot 

 compensate for a small brain with low intelligence ; the cunning, and its twin- 

 faculty invention, of dogs and foxes, give the dog-like Marsupial {Thylacinus) not 

 the least chance ; and a few goats and ponies would soon drive out or starve whole 

 herds of kangaroos. One man with a pocket-knife will do more than another 

 with a whole chest of tools. 



