until it found the right scent again. Of the dimness of its sight we had various proofs; it hurt itself frequently against objects that stood in its way, not observing them till it came in contact with them. Its power of smelling was exquisite, and it could discover its nurse, or any person to whom it had taken a liking, at a considerable distance. Upon these occasions it would commence the whining sound so peculiar to this animal. It was an expert climber It happened that I was one of its favourites, and, whilst writing on my table, it used to come softly behind me, and as soon as it was sure it had found me out, it climbed up my legs with great dexterity. Out of amusement we frequently held up its blanket, and it climbed up its whole length.

"When the Indian woman was not present, or otherwise occupied, and did not pet the young ant-eater, she used to throw some of the clothes she had worn or her own blanket before it, in which it wrapped itself, and was pacified. This effect could not be produced by any other person's clothes. It showed its attachment by licking, and was very gentle and even sportive: we all prized it highly. It slept a great deal. We had it for nearly two months, and, as it began to feed itself, we had great hopes of rearing it; unfortunately, we were unable to procure milk, and whether in consequence of

and stiff; and, though I re-covered it repeatedly, it died one day during my absence."

The flesh of the ant-eater is esteemed as a delicacy by the Indians and negro slaves, and though black, and of a musky flavour, may sometimes be met with at the tables of Europeans. Another animal of this genus is the Tamandua, much inferior in size; and one still smaller, the Little, or Twotoed Ant-Eater.*

The American ant-eaters are represented in India and Africa by the Pangolins, or Scaly AntEaters, which constitute the genus Manis of Linnæus. They may be known by the armour of dense horny scales, or triangular plates, overlapping each other, by which every part of the body, except the middle line of the under surface, is completely invested. The body is depressed, rounded above, long, and low; the head is small and conical, the eyes are minute, there are no external ears, the mouth is small, and the tongue long and extensible; the tail is long and broad, and covered above and below with hard, imbricated scales; the limbs are very short and thick, and mailed like the rest of the body; no distinct toes are apparent beyond the claws, which, on the fore feet, are five in number. The large claws fold down on a thick, coarse pad, as in the ant-eater, and the mode of progression is the same in both instances. The food of the manis consists of white ants. It dwells in holes which it burrows in the ground.

Myrmecophaga didactyla: Linnæus,

THE animals of the present Order differ essentially in their organisation from all others. They comprehend genera living on every variety of nutriment: thus, some are insectivorous or carnivorous, others herbivorous, and others frugivorous, and differing also in their habits-some being diurnal, and others nocturnal. A corresponding modification is, therefore, manifest of the teeth and digestive organs, as well as of those of prehension and progression.

The distinctness of the Marsupials rests on physiological grounds; in fact, on their structure and economy relating to the reproduction of the species, on the abbreviated term of gestation, and on the young being received, in their immature condition, into the marsupium, or pouch; where, attaching itself to the teats, it receives nutriment and grows, till it is able to provide for itself. The marsupium is, sometimes, nothing more than a fold of skin-at others, this is wanting; but two bones, situated on the anterior part of the pelvis, and called the marsupial bones, are always present. On the structure of these animals, Professor Owen has thrown great light. We now proceed succinctly to describe some of the genera and sub-genera.

One genust has forty-six teeth. The incisors are ranged in a semicircle, equal, and separated in the middle in each jaw by a vacant space; the external incisor on each side is the stoutest; the canines are of considerable size, curved and pointed, like those of cats and dogs; the last molars are armed with three obtuse tubercles; there are five toes on each fore foot and four on each hind foot.

THIS creature, called by a variety of names, as zebra, opossum, and zebra-wolf, is a native of Van Diemen's Land. In stature it nearly equals a wolf; the head strongly resembles that of a dog, but * Marsupiata, or Marsupialia, from marsupium, a purse or bag.

Thylacinus Cynocephalus.

Thylacinus: Temminck.

the mouth is wider; the tail is thick at the base, becoming more slender towards the point: it is covered with short, close hairs of a brown colour. The general fur is short and smooth, of a dusky yellowish-brown, barred on the lower part of the back with about sixteen black transverse stripes, broadest on the back and gradually tapering downwards, two of which extend a considerable way down the thighs. The ground-colour of the back has a tint of dusky-gray. The eyes are large, full, and

black.

Concealed in the caverns or fissures of the rocks during the day, these animals prowl during the night in quest of prey. An individual was caught in a trap, baited with kangaroo flesh, but lived only a few hours, having been hurt in securing it. It appeared stupid, inactive, and ferocious. It emitted, from time to time, a short guttural cry, and, like the owl, was constantly drawing and undrawing the nictitating membrane of the eye. In its stomach were found the partly-digested remains of a porcupine ant-eater.

Another genus has the head conical, and very much pointed; the gape very wide; the ears

moderate.

There are five toes on the fore feet; and on the hind feet the great toe is reduced to a tubercle, or is entirely absent.

A third genust is formed from a singular animal discovered by Sir Thomas Mitchell, on the banks of the river Murray, during a journey in the interior of New South Wales. His notice is as follows: "June 16th, 1836.-The most remarkable incident of this day's journey was the discovery of an animal of which I had seen only a head in a fossil state in the limestone caves of Wellington Valley, where, from its very singular form, I supposed it to belong to some extinct species. The chief peculiarity then observed was the broad head, and very long, slender snout, which resembled the narrow neck of a wide bottle; but in the living animal the absence of a tail was still more remarkable. The feet, and especially the fore legs, were also singularly formed, the latter resembling those of a pig; and the marsupial opening was downwards, and not upwards, as in the kangaroo, and others of that class of animals. This quadruped was discovered by the natives on the ground; but, on being chased, it took refuge in a hollow tree, in which they captured it alive, all of them declaring that they had never before seen an animal of the kind. This was when the party had commenced the journey up the left bank of the Murray, immediately after crossing that river."

Another genus, of which the Virginian opossum is an example, is restricted to America. It contains about twenty species.

The upper incisors are ten, of which the two middle are longer than the rest; the lower incisors are eight; the canines as usual; the molars above, seven, the first three, false, triangular, compressed; the molars below, seven, the first three false; the true molars, both above and below, crowned with sharp tubercles. Of all terrestrial mammalia, the Myrmecobius excepted, these animals have the greatest number of teeth, amounting to fifty.

The limbs are short; the feet plantigrade; the toes, five on each foot, armed with sharp, strong, curved claws, except the inner toe on the hinder feet, which is opposable, and without a nail. A naked skin, which is extremely sensible, covers the soles. The tail is scaly and naked, except at its base; it forms an organ of prehension, but varying in power in different species. The head is long and

pointed; the profile straight; the eyes small, dark, and prominent, having no eyelids, but provided with a nictitating membrane. The ears are large, thin, naked, and rounded; the tongue is rough, with horny papillæ ; the snout is long; the muzzle pointed, naked, and moist; the nostrils are lateral; the mouth very wide; and the expression of the face unpleasant. In one division, the females have a pouch for their young; in another, the pouch consists only of a slight fold of skin.

The opossums are the only marsupial animals that exist beyond the pale of New Holland, and the

* Didelphis.

neighbouring archipelagos. They seem to fill, in the New World, to a certain extent, the same station as the civets do in the Old; for no species of this latter family has yet been discovered in the Western Hemisphere. Like them, they secrete a strong odoriferous fluid; pass the day in a state approaching to torpidity; prowl abroad during the night, and prey upon birds and the smaller quadrupeds, frequently making the poultry-yard the scene of their devastations, and sucking the blood of their victim before gorging themselves on its flesh. In the absence of more noble game, they make prey even of reptiles and insects; and fruits and other vegetable substances afford a common addition to their varied diet. But, unlike the civets, they live almost entirely upon. the trees; the peculiar conformation of their hinder limbs, and the prehensile character of their naked tail, rendering them most admirable climbers. These tails are also of essential service in other circumstances; for the little ones, when frightened, leap upon their mother's back, twist their tails around hers, and in this singular fashion escape, with her assistance, from the threatened danger.

THE VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM.*

THIS animal is one of the largest species of the group, being, in size, fully equal to the domestic cat. The pouch beneath the belly of the adult females forms a perfect sac. The almost shapeless young, of

scarcely more than a grain in weight, and generally about twelve in number, are found, at first, inseparably attached to the teats within it; as they increase in size, the teats become proportionately enlarged, and are prolonged into the stomachs of the young; and after a certain number of days, having attained about the size of a mouse, and all their parts being completely formed, they abandon the teats, to which they thenceforward only return, like other sucking animals, to satisfy the cravings of their appetites, occasionally quitting the pouch itself, but still flying to it for shelter on the slightest alarm, and finally abandoning it at the end of about fifty days from the period when they were first deposited in it.

The general colour of the Virginian opossum is a dull white, the hair with which it is covered being of two different kinds. That which more immediately invests the body is a long, fine, woolly down, white at the base, with brownish tips, through which pass the still longer hairs of a pure white,

• Didelphis Virginiara.