<hw>Banded Ant-eater</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a small
terrestrial and ant-eating marsupial, <i>Myrmecobius
fasciatus</i>, Waterh, found in West and South Australia. It
is the only species of the genus, and is regarded as the most
closely allied of all living marsupials to the extinct
marsupials of the Mesozoic Age in Europe. It receives its name
banded from the presence along the back of a well-marked series
of dark transverse bands.

1871. G. Krefft, `Mammals of Australia':

"The <i>Myrmecobius</i> is common on the West Coast and in the
interior of New South Wales and South Australia: the
Murrumbidgee River may be taken as its most eastern boundary."

1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' p. 340:

"Thus we have here [W. Australia] alone the curious little
banded ant-eater (<i>Myrmecobius fasciatus</i>), which presents
the nearest approach in its dentition to the most ancient known
mammals whose remains are found in the oolite and Trias of the
Mesozoic epoch."

<hw>Banded-Kangaroo</hw>, i.q. <i>Banded-Wallaby</i>. See
<i>Lagostrophus</i> and <i>Wallaby</i>.

<hw>Banded-Wallaby</hw>, <i>n</i>. sometimes called
<i>Banded-Kangaroo</i>. See <i>Lagostrophus</i> and
<i>Wallaby</i>.

<hw>Bandicoot</hw>, <i>n</i>. an insect-eating marsupial
animal; family, <i>Peramelidae</i>; genus, <i>Perameles</i>.
"The animals of this genus, commonly called <i>Bandicoots</i>
in Australia, are all small, and live entirely on the ground,
making nests composed of dried leaves, grass and sticks, in
hollow places. They are rather mixed feeders; but insects,
worms, roots and bulbs, constitute their ordinary diet."
(`Encyclopaedia Britannica,' 9th edit., vol. xv. p. 381.) The
name comes from India, being a corruption of Telugu
<i>pandi-kokku</i>, literally "pig-dog," used of a large rat
called by naturalists <i>Mus malabaricus</i>, Shaw, <i>Mus
giganteus</i>, Hardwicke; <i>Mus bandis coota</i>, Bechstein.
The name has spread all over India. The Indian animal is very
different from the Australian, and no record is preserved to
show how the Anglo-Indian word came to be used in Australia.
The Bandicoots are divided into three genera--the <i>True
Bandicoots</i> (genus <i>Perameles</i>, q.v.), the <i>Rabbit
Bandicoots</i> (genus <i>Peragale</i>, q.v.), and the
<i>Pig-footed Bandicoots</i> (q.v.) (genus <i>Choeropus</i>,
q.v.). The species are--

Broadbent's Bandicoot--
<i>Perameles broadbenti</i>, Ramsay.

Cockerell's