The Yellow-footed Phascogale is a kind which inhabits New South Wales and South Australia, and the White-footed Phascogale and a closely-allied kind live in South Australia and Van Diemen’s Land. In New Guinea, which constitutes a part of the Australian natural history province, there is a black, short-eared, and short-furred kind, about the size of a Rat, called _Phascogale melas_. [Illustration: ANTECHINUS.] There is a little kind, measuring only three inches in length, with white fur everywhere, except on the upper parts, which are ashy grey; and in Western and Southern Australia there is one which has great ears, very slender limbs, and a short and thick fat tail. It looks like a large-eared, fat-tailed Mouse, and is under four inches in length. All these kinds of Phascogale, except the brush-tailed one, belong to a group with very short hairs on the tail, and are sometimes classified under the name Antechinus, the thick-tailed one being termed Podabrus; and they all have shallow pouches. [Illustration: OPOSSUM AND YOUNG.] CHAPTER III. THE OPOSSUMS. Prehistoric Opossums--Description of the Animal--Their Teeth--Habits--THE COMMON OPOSSUM--Appearance--Use of its Tail--Food--The Young--How they are Reared--D’AZARA’S OPOSSUM--THE CRAB-EATING OPOSSUM--THE THICK-TAILED OPOSSUM--MERIAN’S OPOSSUM--Pouchless Opossums--Their Young--THE MURINA OPOSSUM--THE ELEGANT OPOSSUM--THE YAPOCK--Classification of Marsupial Animals--Geographical Distribution of the Sub-Order--Ancestry of the Marsupials--Fossil Remains. VI.--THE OPOSSUM FAMILY.--DIDELPHIDÆ.