All these, from their long hind legs and jumping movements, we should recognise at once; but the plump furry Wombat (see Fig. 52) looks more like an ordinary four-footed animal, as it wanders by night burrowing and gnawing the roots of plants. So too do the tree-climbing animals, the Kaola or tailless bear (Fig. 51), which often carries its young one on its back, and the beautiful Phalangers or “Australian Opossums,” which live in hollow trees and come out on moonlight nights to feed upon the leaves, hanging from the boughs by their long prehensile tails. Yet all these animals have a pouch for their young, and while the long-tailed furry Phalangers play the part of the fruit-eating monkeys in a land where monkeys have probably never been, another group of them, the “Flying Phalangers” (Fig. 51), with a membrane stretching between their front and hind legs, represent the flying squirrels, and live at the very top of the gum trees, feeding on leaves and flowers, and taking flying leaps with their limbs outspread. These are all vegetable-feeders; and they leave plenty of room for the little insect-feeders, the Myrmecobius, with its long bushy tail, and the Bandicoots or rabbit-rats, which feed partly on bulbs and roots, and more often on insects, grubs, and even small mice and vermin. But where are the animal-eaters? Surely here, as in other parts of the world, some of the group have taken to feeding on their neighbours? There are very few carnivorous animals in Australia, and these are small, though fierce, and feed chiefly on rats and mice; yet the bones of huge marsupials, with long pointed teeth, found in the rocks, tell us that dangerous animals were once there before they were driven out, probably by the Dingo and savage man. And when we get to Tasmania, where no Dingos are found, there the flesh-eating marsupials still live, as fierce as any wolves and wild cats of Europe, and still they are pouch-bearers. Slim and elegant as the fierce and furry Tiger-wolf (Fig. 52) looks as he courses over the Tasmanian plains in search of prey, yet the mother carries her young in a pouch like the gentler wombat or the powerful kangaroo; and so does the mother of the Native Devil or Tiger-cat (Fig. 52), which is so fierce that even the natives are afraid of it when it turns at bay, and it will attack and devour large sheep, though it is only the size of a terrier dog.