316 VERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 
supials possess teeth, and the pectoral arch has now the same 
form as in the higher Mammals, the coracoid bones being now 
amalgamated with the shoulder-blade. The intestine does not 
terminate in a cloaca. . 
Though the Marsufialia form an extremely natural order, 
sharply separated from the other Mammals, they include a large 
number of varied forms. In fact, this order, from its being the 
almost exclusive possessor of a continent so large as Australia, 
has to discharge, in the general economy of nature, functions 
which are elsewhere performed by several orders. As regards 
Fig. 171.—Marsupialia. The Koala or Kangaroo-bear (Phascolarctos cinereus). 
(After Gould.) 
their geographical distribution, with the single exception of the 
family Didelphide (the true Opossums), the whole order of the 
Marsupials is exclusively confined to Australia, Van Diemen’s 
Land, New Guinea, and the adjacent islands. 
The Marsupials may be primarily divided into the vegetable- 
eating and rapacious or carnivorous forms—the former charac- 
terised by the absence or rudimentary condition of the canine 
teeth, the molars having broad, grinding crowns; whilst in the 
latter there are well-developed canines, and the molars are not 
adapted for grinding. Of the vegetable-eating forms, the best 
