marsupial

I.

n. an animal in which the female hasan abdominal pouch in which the young, born in a very immaturestate, are carried. (Lat. Marsupium = a pouch.) At thepresent day Marsupials are only found in America and theAustralian region, the greater number being confined to thelatter. See quotation 1894, Lydekker.

1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 129:

«The marsupial type exhibits the economy of nature under noveland very interesting arrangements. . . . Australia is thegreat head-quarters of the marsupial tribe.»

1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 5:

«I believe it was Charles Lamb who said, the peculiarity of thesmall fore-feet of the Kangaroo seemed to be for pickingpockets; but he forgot to mention the singularitycharacterizing the animal kingdom of Australia, that they havepockets to be picked, being mostly marsupial. We have oftenamused ourselves by throwing sugar or bread into the pouch ofthe Kangaroo, and seen with what delight the animal has pickedits own pocket, and devoured the contents, searching its bag,like a Highlander his sporran, for more.»

[See Kangaroo, quotation 1833.]

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 106:

«An Act known as the Marsupial Act was accordingly passed toencourage their destruction, a reward of so much a scalp beingoffered by the Government. . . . Some of the squatters havegone to a vast expense in fencing-in their runs with marsupialfencing, but it never pays.»

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 29:

«One of the sheep-owners told me that in the course of eighteenmonths he had killed 64,000 of these animals (marsupials),especially wallabies ( Macropus dorsalis) and kangaroo-rats ( Lagorchestes conspicillatus), and also manythousands of the larger kangaroo ( Macropus giganteus).»

1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 5, p. 9, col. 1:

«In South Australia the Legislature has had to appoint a closeseason for kangaroos, else would extinction of the largermarsupials be at hand. We should have been forced to suchaction also, if the American market for kangaroo-hides hadcontinued as brisk as formerly.»

1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia,' p. 1:

«The great island-continent of Australia, together with theSouth-eastern Austro-Malayan islands, is especiallycharacterized by being the home of the great majority of thatgroup of lowly mammals commonly designated marsupials, orpouched-mammals. Indeed, with the exception of the still moreremarkable monotremes [q.v.], or egg-laying mammals, nearly thewhole of the mammalian fauna of Australia consists of thesemarsupials, the only other indigenous mammals being certainrodents and bats, together with the native dog, or dingo,which may or may not have been introduced by man.»

1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 30:

«The presence of a predominating marsupial order in Australiahas, besides practically establishing the long isolation ofthat continent from the rest of the globe, also given rise toa number of ingenious theories professing to account for itssurvival to this last stronghold.»

II.

adj.

See the Noun.