Pouch

“ The most remarkable circumstance in the natural history of this animal is the pouch which is formed under the belly of the female, in which it carries its young ones when they are small. If the little creatures are frightened when absent from their mother, they scamper to this asylum as soon as possible. ”

“ The female brings forth four or five young ones at a time, not larger than mice when first born, and they immediately betake themselves to the pouch under the belly of their mother. The pouch is formed by a fold of the skin, hairy on the outside and covered with a very soft down or fur on the inside; the nipples are so situated, that the young ones can suck them as they are carried about by their mother ”

“ The inside of this pouch is full of kernels, which contain a yellow substance, the smell of which is so offensive, that it infects the whole body of the animal; yet when this matter is dried, it not only loses its disagreeable smell, but acquires a perfume which may be compared to that of musk. This pouch is not, as Marcgrave and Piso have falsely asserted, the place in which the young are conceived; the female opossum has an internal womb, different indeed from that of other animals, but in which the young are conceived, and remain till they are brought forth. ”

“ The first or hyomandibular pouch, placed between the mandibular and hyoid arches, has rather the character of a double layer of hypoblast than of a true pouch, though in parts a slight space is developed between its two walls. It is shewn in section in Plate 37, fig. 43 (h.m.) , from an embryo of about 10 millims., shortly before hatching. It [Pg 832] does not appear to undergo any further development, and, so far as we can make out, disappears shortly after the embryo is hatched, without acquiring an opening to the exterior. ”

“ This species is nearly naked, a collar only of thinly spread hairs half surrounding the neck, and is remarkable for its enormous throat-sac and nursing-pouches. The former consists of a semicircular fold of skin forming a pouch round the neck beneath, concealing the orifices of subcutaneous pectoral glands which discharge an oily fluid of offensive smell. The nursing-pouch is formed on each side by an extension of a fold of skin from the side of the body to the inferior surfaces of the humerus and femur. In the anterior part of this pouch the teat is placed. ”

“ As regards the breeding of this species, a fact of considerable interest was noticed. In the pouch of the female (which, by the way, has the opening turned towards the anus) as a rule three young are found in the earliest stage of development after birth. When the half-grown post-foetal stage is reached only two remain; and when development is nearly completed, and the young animal almost fit to leave the pouch, only one is left. ”

“ These charms are of many kinds, and are worn round the neck and waist, or suspended from the shoulder. A short bit of wood with a carved head, with a couple of beads, cowries, or brass tacks for eyes, and contained in a little pouch, with the head left sticking out, and hung by a string round the neck, is a very common form. A pouch stuffed full of fowls’ dung, feathers, and “tacula,” is also a favourite “fetish.” A bundle of rags or shreds of cotton cloth of all kinds, black with filth and perspiration, is often seen suspended from the shoulder or hung in their huts. ”

“ One is tempted to wonder how far the habit which certain Lemurs have of carrying their young across the abdomen with the tail wrapped round the body of the mother is a reminiscence of a marsupial pouch. ”

“ As soon as this takes place the pouch becomes the nursery of the young ones. But, strange though it may seem, this pouch is developed by the father of the family, who does all the nursing!
Some of the cat-fishes—the Arius, for example—carry the eggs in their capacious throats till they hatch! How the fish manages to prevent the escape of his precious burden through his gills, or to prevent himself from swallowing them, is something of a mystery. ”

“ Each one is enclosed in a sort of little pouch, a firm and semi-transparent cell which derives its substance from the flesh of the pig itself. Commonly the tiny creature is entirely hidden in its snug retreat; at other times, through an opening in the pouch, it stretches its neck and pushes its head out a little, doubtless to feed on the adjacent fluid matter by means of its four suckers. As to the little bladder forming the other part of the worm, it never leaves its cell, the cavity of which it fills exactly. Hence the animal never changes its place. ”

“ The pouch may be opened, the young counted, and even felt, without disturbing them, for they do not leave the teats, which they hold with their mouths, before they are strong enough to walk; then they fall into the bag, and afterwards go out to seek for their subsistence; they often go in again to sleep, to suck, and to hide themselves when terrified; in cases of danger the mother flies, and carries the whole of her young with her. Her belly does not seem to have any increased bigness when she is breeding, for in the time of the true gestation it is scarcely perceivable that she is with young. ”

“ Marcgrave affirms, that he has seen six young ones alive in the pouch of the female; they were about two inches in length, were very nimble, and went in and out of the pouch many times in a day. They are very small when just brought forth: some travellers say they [245] are not bigger than flies when they go out of the womb into the pouch, and attach themselves to the teats. This fact is not so much exaggerated as might be imagined, for we have seen in an animal, whose species is somewhat like that of the opossum, young ones sticking to the teats not bigger than beans ”

“ Let us take into consideration the small size of the animal found in the pouch, its utter helplessness, its slight power of motion, and its firm attachment to the nipple. The more it is in the embryonic state the firmer is its attachment to the mother; to separate it from the nipple requires some force; the surrounding parts of the opening of the mouth, after separation, bleed profusely, and the animal has no power to close it; the opening remains gaping and circular, the animal lies on its side, and if very young, soon dies. ”

“ Owen believed that the mother would pick up a miserable naked worm-like creature with her paws and place it in the pouch, I fancy that he would have made that statement long ago. Waterhouse, in his 'Mammalia,' vol. i. Pouched Animals, published in 1846, does not even mention how the young gets into the pouch; he had access to Prof. Owen and all his papers. Cassell's Nat. Hist., quoting some other authority, says, "The mother places it in her pouch," without giving any idea of how that is performed. ”

“ There is a pair of sacs at the base of the pouch which is attached to the intestine, and at the outer extremity, between segments iv and v, the aperture of the spermathecal tube has a pair of large brown glands. ”

“ As soon as the large bundles of grass come to this part, they press against the walls of the tube, which they by this means separate, and fall into the provision-pouch, which bears the name of paunch, or grass-pocket, in fact. As soon as the paunch is well filled, and the animal sure of his dinner, he lies down in some quiet corner, where he proceeds gravely with the important act, which is the real object of his existence. ”

“ This pouch they fill with water, to carry a good supply along with them, until they reach the ponds for which they are making. It is the pouch alone that enables eels to live so long out of water under all circumstances, and so incidentally exposes them to the disagreeable experience of getting skinned alive, which it is to be feared still forms the fate of most of those that fall into the clutches of the human species. ”

“ The water which enters the pouch when it is immersed, is immediately forced out between the partially closed mandibles, and the fish, unless larger than those on which they usually feed, is instantly swallowed, to be afterwards disgorged for the benefit of the young, either partially macerated, or whole, according to the age and size of the latter. ”

“ Thomas' summary in his definition of the family Didelphyidae. [10] Another curious feature of the pouch in the Marsupials is the variability in the position of the mouth of the pouch: in all the Diprotodonts it looks forward; but in many Polyprotodonts it looks backward. This, however, has some connexion with the habitual attitude of the possessor: in the Kangaroo, leaping along on its hind-legs, it is requisite that the pouch should open forwards; but in the dog-like Thylacine, going on all fours, the fact that the pouch {18}opens backwards is less disadvantageous to the contained young. ”

“ Eng. as poket, and is taken from a Norman diminutive of O. Fr. poke, pouque, mod. poche, cf. “pouch.” The form “poke” is now only used dialectically, or in such proverbial sayings as a “pig in a poke,” and possibly in the “poke-bonnet,” the coal-scuttle bonnet fashionable during the first part of the 19th century, and now worn by the female members of the Salvation Army; more probably the name of the bonnet is connected with “poke,” to thrust forward, dig. The origin of this is obscure. Dutch has poken, pook, a dagger ”

“ Pouched, having a pouch.—Pouched mouse, a genus of small, lean, long-tailed, agile rodents, with cheek-pouches; Pouched rat, a genus of plump, short-tailed rodents, with cheek-pouches which open externally. ”

“ In this way he makes a pouch, or purse, six or seven inches deep, and lines it on the inside with several soft things, which he weaves into the outside netting, and finishes the whole with horse-hair. ”

“ In the bats and lemurs the "horns" are very short, and the lower common part is longer. Finally, in the apes and in man the blending of the two halves is complete, and there is only the one simple, pear-shaped uterine pouch, into which the oviducts open on each side. ”

“ The sexes are distinct but dissimilar in size, the female being usually much larger than the male. The generative organs occupy a large part of the body cavity. In the female the ovary is a large unpaired organ from the anterior end of which arise two oviducts, and connected with the latter are a pair of large so-called copulatory pouches, which perhaps act as receptacula seminis. These and the oviducts lie on the anterior half of the body ”

“ Fore-feet with five toes, all having strong pointed, compressed claws, the second, third and fourth nearly equal, the fifth somewhat and the first considerably shorter. Hind-feet with no trace of first toe externally, but the metatarsal bone is present. Tail long, clothed with long hairs. Fur rather harsh and bristly. Female without pouch, the young when attached to the nipples being concealed by the long hair of the abdomen. ”

“ The most striking characteristic of the animal, and that from which it takes its name, consists in the large cheek pouches which hang from each side of the mouth and extend back to to shoulders. They are used as receptacles of food which the animal hurriedly gathers when above ground, afterward returning to its burrow to enjoy its feast at its leisure. ”

“ Such reservoirs are found in mammals and birds connected with the oral cavity, as cheek-pouches, or with the œsophagus, such as the crop of the birds (Fig. 88) . Fig. 80 shows the development of the cheek-pouches in one of the primates, Macacus nemestrinus.
In many mammals reservoirs of similar import are added directly to the stomach and form an integral part of the organ. Examples are furnished by the compound stomachs of many rodents, ruminants, cetaceans and herbivorous edentates. ”

“ These are the genuine musk pouches, of which very few are exported, because they falsify them, and they do it in this way. It must be known that on taking it from the living animal, they place many leeches on the wounds, and allow them to gorge themselves with blood, and when full they put them in the sun to dry, and of these they put so many that the animal falls dead without any blood, and afterwards they skin it, and with the skin they make several counterfeit pouches, which look like the real ones. ”

“ The cheeks contain pouches in which a quantity of food can be stored, the animal carrying it in to the safety of its burrow to be eaten, and so avoiding the danger of being out for a long time of feeding. ”

“ Length to end of tail 52 inches, to end of wings 52, to end of claws 53 1/4; extent of wings 80; bill along the ridge 13 1/4, along the edge of lower mandible 14 1/4; depth of gular pouch 10, its extent along the neck 13; wing from flexure 24; tail 7; tarsus 2 1/2; middle toe 3 11/12, its claw 9/12. Weight 6 lb. 4 1/2 oz.
The Female, which is considerably larger, resembles the male in colour, only that the neck is yellowish-white in its whole extent, without any brown, and its feathers are stiff and not downy as in the male. Weight 7 lb. ”

“ The cheeks of the Monkeys with the peculiar stomach, on the other hand, are not pouched, but there is just the vestige of a fold or two, which, although of no use, still remains as an evidence of their ancestry—for, doubtless, these are descended from those with pouches. The great Anthropomorphous Apes have no cheek-pouches, neither have the American Monkeys; and, for reasons which will be noticed in treating of these last, they have not the complicated stomach of the Old World pouchless group. ”

“ On his part the poacher has only to refer to his dog as to the pages of a book, and he reads at once in his slightest movements what is in the wind, what bird lies hidden in the grass, or what beast is cowering in the thicket. By the position of his head, the manner in which he scratches the ground, pricks his ear, or carries his tail, he understands as plainly as if he spoke whether he announces the proximity of a wolf, a partridge, a woodcock, a roebuck, a hare, or a rabbit. ”