THE CHjER OP US. 
384 
It is bnt a small animal, measuring only eighteen inches in total length. When the 
animal is killed, it is not easily flayed, as the skin adheres so tightly to the flesh that 
its removal is a matter of some difficulty, when there is need for preserving the skin in its 
integrity. 
The Long-nosed Bandicoot is not unlike the preceding animal in form, but differs from 
it in the coloring of its fur, and the greater length of its snout. 
The face, head, and body are of a brown tint, pencilled with black on the upper portions, 
and the sides are of a pale brown, sometimes warmed with a rich purplish hue. The edge of 
the upper lip is white, as are also the under portions of the body, and the fore-legs and feet. 
This fur is very harsh to the touch. The total length of this animal is about twenty-one 
inches, the tail being five inches in length. 
The food of the Long-nosed Bandicoot is said to be of a purely vegetable nature, and the 
animal is reported to occasion some havoc among 
the 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 larvse 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 in- 
sectivorous shrews, afford good reasons for con- 
jecturing that they may be employed in much 
the same manner. 
The dentition of the Bandicoot is rather in- 
teresting, and will be found detailed at some 
length in the table of generic distinctions at the 
end of the volume. 
The large-eared, woolly-furred little animal 
which is here represented, is closely allied to the 
bandicoots, but at once distinguishable from them 
by the peculiarity of structure which has earned 
for it the generic title of Chseropus, or “swine- 
footed.” 
Upon the fore-feet there are only two toes, 
which are of equal length, and armed with sharp 
and powerful hoof -like claws, that bear no small 
resemblance to the foot of a pig, and are not only porcine in their external aspects, but in the 
track which they leave upon the ground when the creature walks on soft soil. Slenderly and 
gracefully swinish, it is true, but still piggish in appearance, though not in character. 
The CuHniopiJS was formerly designated by the specific title of ecaudatus , or tailless, 
because the first specimen that had been captured was devoid of caudal appendage, and there- 
fore its discoverers naturally concluded that all its kindred were equally curtailed of their fair 
proportions. But as new specimens came before the notice of the zoological world, it was 
found that the Chseropus 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 to the 
individual, and not the normal condition of the species. The size of the Chseropus is about 
equal to that of a small rabbit, and the soft, woolly fur is much of the same color as that of 
the common wild rabbit. 
It is an inhabitant of New South Wales, and was first discovered by Sir Thomas Mitchell 
on the banks of the Murray River, equally to the astonishment of white men and natives, the 
latter declaring that they had never before seen such a creature. The speed of the Chseropus 
CBL32ROPUS .— Chceropus castanotus. 
