<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 B.—
<i>P. cockerelli</i>, Ramsay.
Common Rabbit B.—
<i>Peragale lagotis</i>, Reid.
Desert B.—
<i>P. eremiana</i>, Spencer.
Doria's B.—
<i>Perameles dorerana</i>, Quoy & Gaim.
Golden B.—
<i>P. aurata</i>, Ramsay.
Gunn's B.—
<i>P. gunni</i>, Gray.
Less Rabbit B.—
<i>Peragale minor</i>, Spencer.
Long-nosed B.—
<i>Perameles nasuta</i>, Geoffr.