Strange stories of the animal world : A book of curious contributions to natural history / by John Timbs.
- John Timbs
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Strange stories of the animal world : A book of curious contributions to natural history / by John Timbs. Source: Wellcome Collection.
350/404
![Marsupials, or Mammalia wliicli carry tlieir young in pouches, including the opossums, kangaroos, wombats, phalangers, &c. Of these only one genus, the Opossum, is found in America. All the other genera belong exclusively to Australia, Yan Diemen’s Land, and the islands of the Asiatic Archipelago, as far as Java. In -^Vustralia, they constitute an immense majority of the mammalian species, in which, with this exception, the Continent is exceedingly poor. In the islands of the Archipelago, only seven species are enumerated, among which is one Kangaroo, said to occur in Java. In no other part of the Old Y'orld are any marsupial animals belonging to this class found living; and if we would seek for indica- tions of them, singularly enough it is in the fossil remains in the oolites of the south of England, the antipodes of the region which tliey now-almost exclusively possess.* The peculiar provision of the 2^ouches has been thus ex- plained. The distinguishing characteristic of Australia is its extreme dryness; and it has been supposed by physiologists tliat the object of this singular organization—the poucli—is to enable them to transport their young when they are obliged tf) traverse great distances, in order to obtain the means of quenching tlieir thirst. If no such contrivance as the pouch of the Marsupials existed, the young would probably perish while the mother wandered about in search of water. The Marsu])ials have been charged with “ stupidity,” of which this explanation has been olfered. Ih'ofessor Owen, in his new classification of the Mammalia, has very properly placed the Marsupials, (of which the Kangaroo is a good example,) among the order L3^encephala, so denominated from the fact that the two hemispheres of the brain are nearly * Sir John Ilerschel : riiysical Geography; Eiieyclopredia Britaimica.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28127420_0352.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
