Note 186 — Chapter XXXII · Distribution of Mammalia throughout the Earth.

There are 8 families, 14 genera, and 123 species of marsupial animals, amounting to about one-twelfth of all the mammalia. The opossum is American; the seven other families are inhabitants of Australia and the Indian Archipelago.

Of the Didelphidæ or opossum family there are 21 species, all inhabitants of America; the Virginian opossum is about the size of a cat, the other species are not larger than rats or mice. A pretty kind in Surinam, the D. dorsigera, is so named because it carries its young on its back, which hold on by their prehensile tails twisted round that of the mother: another species is aquatic, and in its habits resembles the otter.

The Dasyuridæ and Phalangers are nocturnal: the Dasyuridæ and wombats burrow.