MARSUPIALIA 179

sticky tongues. They are found in South Africa, in
Nubia, and on the West Coast of Africa ; and are
nocturnal animals that live in burrows. Aard-vark is
simply the Dutch for earth-pig.

MARS UPIALIA.—Theseanimalsdifferso widely
from any of the foregoing that they are now grouped
into a separate sub-class, there being three sub-classes
altogether—the Eutheria with which we have been
dealing, the Metatheria, containing these marsupials,
and the Prototheria, comprising the monotremes, with
which this chapter will end. In the eutheria the
brain is convoluted, in the other sub-classes it is
nearly smooth; and while in the eutheria we find
the temperature of the body ranging from 95° to 104°
Fahrenheit, in the metatheria the range is from go°
to 97°, and in the prototheria it is from VijmmtOnoser
The great distinction is, however, in the manner of
birth. The marsupials are, as their name signifies,
‘the pouched animals,’ the young after birth being
generally nursed in a pouch for some considerable
time. The monotremes lay eggs in strong flexible
white shells, out of which the young have to find
their way into the world. The skeleton of a marsu-
pial can be recognised at once, for, with one exception,
—there is always an exception in any attempt at
classifying—it has a pair of long slender bones close
to where the pouch comes.

One family of marsupials is American, the others
are only found in Australia and the neighbouring
islands. It is usual to divide the order into two

groups, the first, Polyprotodontia, such as the Tasma-
M 2