255 
PH ALAN GIST ID iE ; or, Vhalanger Family. 
Dentition .—Incisors,*; canines, or —; constant premolars, 
l-l '4-4 3-3 
—; true molars, —, or — 
thud moderate; the facial portion rather short; upper Up cleft; 
muffle leaked. 
Limbs equal; fore feet with five well-developed toes, having com¬ 
pressed and curved claws; hind feet with live toes, ot which 
the first, or innermost one, is large, nailless, placed at right 
angles with the rest, and opposeable to them; the second 
and third toes more slender and shorter than the others, 
united in a common integument very nearly to the extremity, 
and furnished with curved hollow nails; the fourth and fifth 
toes have curved and compressed claws. 
Tail sometimes absent, but almost always long, and more or less 
prehensile; in some species wanting the prehensile power. 
Pouch well developed. 
Mamnue two or four. 
Stomach usually simple, sometimes provided with a cardiac gland; 
caecum present, and, in most species, very much developed. 
The Plialangcrs, so called from their having the second 
and thir d toes of the hinder foot united in a common 
integument, form the fourth family of Vegetable-feeding 
Marsupial Mammals—that is, taking the groups in the 
ascending order, and viewing the Wombats as forming a 
family. 
Although the diet of the species of different groups 
already described, no doubt varies to a certain extent, yet, 
on the whole, we might say die Kangaroos are more espe¬ 
cially grass and herb-feeders; die burrowing Wombats, root- 
feeders: the gigantic extinct Diprotodons and Noto thoriums 
probably derived their sustenance from the twigs and leaves 
