ANIMALS OF AUSTRALIA 
remains, the Orycteropus was an inhabitant of the 
land of Samos and the kingdom of Persia. 
ORDER MARSUPIALS, OR KANGAROOS, WOMBATS 
AND THE LIKE 
The name marsupial indicates the most salient 
external feature of this order of mammals, viz. the 
possession of a pouch. Constantly it will be possible 
to observe this pouch in the case of kangaroos which 
happen to have young ones; for the infant kangaroo 
can be seen peering out of the maternal pouch. The 
reason for this pouch, or at any rate a fact which accom- 
panies the possession of this pouch, is the very imper- 
fect condition of the newborn young; they are tiny 
blind and naked creatures, not longer than the little 
finger. To the eye of the visitor this pouch is about 
the only visible character which links together the 
marsupial tribe. In other external features they 
differ very widely indeed. The long-legged, thick- 
tailed, leaping kangaroos with their long ears, and 
donkey-like face, are extraordinarily different from 
the fat marmot-like wombat, or from the comparatively 
recently discovered marsupial mole, the golden coloured, 
burrowing Notoryctes. The fierce Tasmanian wolf, 
Tasmanian devil, and ursine Dasyure, represent another 
type of this most diverse order, carnivorous in habit 
and with a smaller pouch backwardly directed instead 
of forwardly as in the kangaroos. The Phalangers of 
Australia and the Koala or “native bear’ are soft- 
furred arboreal marsupials, quite as different in external 
appearance from any of the types that have been 
mentioned, as are the latter among themselves. The 
American opossums are different again; and another 
extreme of this curiously diverse order is realized by 
the tiny “ flying’’ forms which skim from branch to 
branch like the flying squirrels of the order Rodentia. 
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