Dentition: _i_ ⁴⁻⁵⁄₃, _c_ ¹⁄₁, _p_ ³⁄₃, _m_ ⁴⁄₄; total 46 or 48. Upper incisors small, with short broad crowns. Lower incisors moderate, narrow, proclivous. Canines well developed. Premolars compressed, pointed. Molars with quadrate tuberculated crowns. Fourth premolar preceded by a small molariform tooth, which remains in place until the animal is nearly full grown. Fore feet with two or three of the middle toes of nearly equal size, and provided with strong, sharp, slightly curved claws; the other toes rudimentary. Hind feet long and narrow; the hallux rudimentary or absent; the second and third toes very slender, and united in a common integument; the fourth very large, with a stout elongated conical claw; the fifth smaller than the fourth (see Fig. 43). The ungual phalanges of the large toes of both feet cleft at their extremities (as in _Manis_ among the Edentata, but in no other Marsupials). Head elongated. Muzzle long, narrow, and pointed. Stomach simple. Cæcum of moderate size. Pouch complete, opening backwards. Alone among Marsupials they have no clavicles. The _Peramelidæ_ form a very distinct family, in some respects intermediate between the sarcophagous _Dasyuridæ_ and the phytophagous _Macropodidæ_. In dentition they resemble the former, but they agree with the latter in the peculiar structure of the hind feet. In the construction of the fore feet they differ from all other Marsupials. The Bandicoots, as these Marsupials are popularly termed, are of fossorial habits, and subsist either on an insectivorous or omnivorous diet. It has been generally considered that their syndactylous feet indicate direct affinity with the Diprotodonts, but owing to the essentially Polyprotodont character of the organisation—which extends even to their carpal and tarsal bones—Thomas dissents from this view, and concludes that their syndactylism is an independently acquired character, and that they are really a direct offshoot from the _Dasyuridæ_. Some individuals are remarkable for the presence of a longitudinal groove in the root of the canines, by which feature they approximate to some of the Mesozoic Polyprotodont forms. They may be divided into three genera. [Illustration: FIG. 42.—_Perameles gunni._ From Gould.]