320 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



Passing to the right side of the room, we see 

 those of the genus didelphis, which belong to the 

 old world. The largest of them all are the kan- 

 guroos of New Holland. These animals, having 

 the fore feet very short, and the tarsi extremely- 

 long, are almost always on their hind feet and 

 leaning on their tails ; and instead of walking, 

 they jump, without the help of the fore feet. 

 MM. Peron and Lesueur brought almost all the 

 species possessed by the Museum. The kanguroo 

 with red and woolly hair comes from the Blue 

 mountains, and was brought by MM. Quoy and 

 Gaimard, surgeons to ihe expedition of captain 

 Freycinet. 



Near the kanguroos we see the dasyura, the pe- 

 rameles, and the phalangers, genera established 

 by M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Amongst the pha- 

 langers we may observe several species from 

 New Holland, which have the skin on each side 

 extended from one paw to the other like flying 

 squirrels. One of the species is scarcely as large 

 as a mouse. 



The rodentia, to the number of one hundred 



is nearly the size of a cat; its young 1 , at the time of their birth, only 

 weigh one grain : they remain Gxed to the mammae in the pouch until 

 they have acquired the size of a mouse. A particularity in the species 

 of opossum is, that they have fifty teeth; a greater number than has 

 hitherto been observed in any other quadruped. They live on trees, 

 and hunt at night. 



