[1] The presence or absence of the corpus callosum has been much
disputed; the latest researches, however, indicate its absence.
MARSUPIAL MOLE (_Noloryctes typhlops_), the "Ur-quamata" of the natives,
an aberrant polyprotodont from central South Australia, constituting a
family (_Noloryctidae_). This is a small burrowing animal, of a pale
golden-yellow colour, with long silky hair, a horny shield on the nose,
and a stumpy leathery tail. The feet are five-toed, and the third and
fourth toes of the front pair armed with enormous claws adapted for
digging. Neither ear-conches nor eyes are visible externally. There are
but three pairs of incisor teeth in each jaw, and the upper molars are
tricuspid. This animal spends most of its time burrowing in the sand in
search of insects and their larvae, but occasionally makes its
appearance on the surface.
[Illustration: Marsupial Mole (_Notoryctes typhlops_).]
MARSUS, DOMITIUS, Latin poet, the friend of Virgil and Tibullus, and
contemporary of Horace. He survived Tibullus (d. 19 B.C.), but was no
longer alive when Ovid wrote (c. A.D. 12) the epistle from Pontus (_Ex
Ponto_, iv. 16) containing a list of poets. He was the author of a
collection of epigrams called _Cicuta_ ("hemlock")[1] from their bitter
sarcasm, and of a beautiful epitaph on the death of Tibullus; of elegiac
poems, probably of an erotic character; of an epic poem _Amazonis_; and
of a prose work on wit (_De urbanitate_). Martial often alludes to
Marsus as one of his predecessors, but he is never mentioned by Horace,
although a passage in the _Odes_ (iv. 4, 19) is supposed to be an
indirect allusion to the _Amazonis_ (M. Haupt, _Opuscula_, iii. 332).
See J. A. Weichert, _Poetarum latinorum vitae et reliquiae_ (1830); R.
Unger, _De Dom. Marsi cicuta_ (Friedland, 1861).