The British Guiana Museum. 213 
form, comprise the lowest group (Monotremata) of the 
mammals. The specimen of the European wolf exhibited 
is as fine a specimen as one could wish to meet with (but 
certainly not in large numbers and in a hungry con- 
dition). The seals and foxes are equally fine, though the 
former are not large specimens. The badger with its 
markings, rare among animals, dark below and light 
above ; the skunk of odoriferous fame, an animal the 
most capable of all animals of producing at will the most 
insufferable and disgusting of stenches — special glands 
for the purpose being situated at the root of the tail — 
while the animal appears of the most gentle and friendly 
demeanour ; the racoon, the otter, the squirrel, and the 
stoat or ermine in its winter and summer coat, all these, 
among others, are well represented. The kangaroo or 
wallaby and the koala or native " Bear" are two different 
types of the group Marsupialia, a group almost entirely 
confined, at the present day, to the Australian region, the 
exception being the opossums or yawarries of the North 
and South American districts, which forms are not found 
in the Australian region. 
The marsupials are distinguished from other mammals 
by the special pouch or bag in which the young are carried, 
supported by special bones, and also — the chief distin6lion 
— by their internal organisation. A marked feature in 
this latter distinftion is the absence of the placenta, 
the vascular strufture that secures a high development 
of the young before birth. In the marsupials, therefore, 
the young are born in a very helpless condition : they are 
then placed in the pouch or bag, and, being unable to 
suck, milk is forced into their mouths by special muscles. 
The oldest remains of mammals, found as fossils in the 
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