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This volume marks the last in a series of works, sponsored in part by the Australian Mammal Society and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, which encompasses comparative aspects of the biology of Australian marsupials. As noted by Ronald Strahan in his foreword to the volume, this broad survey of marsupial biology can be traced back to the publication of Carnivorous Marsupials, edited by Michael Archer in 1982, and to the continued contribution and influence of Mike Archer in subsequent volumes. In keeping with previous volumes in the series, this book covers a wide range of topics on the comparative biology of perameloids, including behavior and ecology, taxonomy and systematics, reproductive biology and development, anatomy and physiology, distribution and conservation. In addition, beautiful color plates are presented to illustrate seven of the eight genera of perameloids. The bandicoots and their allies from Australia and New Guinea are commonly recognized as a distinct order Peramelemorphia (or Peramelina), whose affinities with other marsupial orders are unclear. The eight recently extant genera are usually placed within two families, but the contents and names of these vary, depending on the biological attributes evaluated. Groves and Flannery present a character analysis of cranial and dental traits in perameloids, and they conclude that the major division within the group is between a predominantly Australian open-country group (family Peramelidae) and a predominantly New Guinean tropical-rainforest group (family Peroryctidae). This arrangement differs from previous analyses in clustering the bilbies (Macrotis) within Peramelidae, rather than as a separate family Thylacomyidae. However, the albumin immunological study presented by Baverstock et al. in a subsequent chapter does not support the proposed peramelid-peroryctid dichotomy, and the same is true for the more extensive DNA/DNA hybridization analysis of Kirsch et al. (1990; J. Mol. Evol.). Clearly, much remains to be done in assessing the phylogenetic relationships among the genera of perameloids. Several other contributions to the volume are of phylogenetic importance, even though the data are not always analyzed for this. The eye of at least two genera of perameloids is shown by Chase and Graydon to possess an unusual conus-like capillary loop projecting into the vitrous from the optic disc. Combined with an avascular retina,