58 
MAMMALIAN GALLERY. 
the latter using their prehensile tails by twisting them round that 
of their mother. 
Fig. 23. 
Opossum {JDidelphys Iciniyera). 
The Yapock [Chironectes] differs from the Opossums by having 
its toes webbed like those of an otter ; it is wholly aquatic in its 
habits^ and lives on water-beetles and crustaceans. Its colour is 
of a general ashy-grey, with five or six broad slaty-brown bands 
across the back, standing out in high relief against the ground- 
colour of the body. 
7. The family Notoryctidce consists of a single and most remark- 
able animal recently discovered in the sandy deserts of the centre of 
Australia, the Marsupial Mole {Xotoryctes typMops). This little 
animal bears very much the same relation in its structure and habits 
to the other Marsupials, that the Moles and Golden Moles (p. 26) 
do to the other Insectivores, and the Rodent Moles (p. 33) do to the 
other Rodents. It lives entirely underground, burrowung in the 
sandy soil, and feeding on worms, larvae, &c. Its snout is provided 
with a peculiar naked pad or shield with which it forces its w'ay 
through the earth ; its tail is short and entirely naked ; its eyes are 
practically aborted, as also are its ears ; and its fore feet, with which 
it burrows, are modified somewhat in the same way as are those of 
