. The Australian Museum magazine. Natural history. G6 THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. whiei: still lay eggs, a very ancient method of bringing forth young, which was probably at one time characteristic of all back-boned animals. In spite of this old-fashioned custom of theirs the inonotremes suckle their young and are therefore true mammals. The fur of the platypus is very valuable, but, as it is an aquatic animal, and very alert, and is, moreover, stringently protected, it is probably in no immediate danger of ex- tinction; nor is the echidna, which is Avell defended by its sharp spines, and
. The Australian Museum magazine. Natural history. G6 THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. whiei: still lay eggs, a very ancient method of bringing forth young, which was probably at one time characteristic of all back-boned animals. In spite of this old-fashioned custom of theirs the inonotremes suckle their young and are therefore true mammals. The fur of the platypus is very valuable, but, as it is an aquatic animal, and very alert, and is, moreover, stringently protected, it is probably in no immediate danger of ex- tinction; nor is the echidna, which is Avell defended by its sharp spines, and is not useful in any way, although to the blaekfellow it is an article of diet. Were these two animals to become ex- tinct the whole scientific world would be filled with keen regret, but, as Grant Allen says in his sprightly verse:— Although in unanimous chorus We mourn that, from ages before us, No single linaliosaiirHs to day should survive. Yet joyfully may we bethink us, With the earliest mammal to link us, We still have the OrnHhorhyiuInis, Extant and alive. MARSUPIALS. These, exemplified by the kangaroo, wombat, bandicoot and many others, form the second great group, and, as their name implies, they are provided in the female with a pouch or marsu- piiim in which the young are carried. Marsupials are the distinctive Austra- lian manunals, and, except for the Ame- rican opossums and the highly interesting Caenolestes of South America, they have no surviving relatives. In past geologi- cal ages the members of this primitive Order were more widely distributed, but, with the rise of a more modern mam- malian type, better equipped for the battle of life, they gradually dwindled. They crossed into Australia while that continent was united to, or at any rate less widely sejiarated from, the rest of the woi'ld than it is now, and, as the bridge by which they came was sub- merged before the higher types could follow, they have found sanctuary in Australia and its adjacent islan
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