Theresa Levinski, age 12, of Danville, I11., for her question:

WHAT IS A BANDICOOT?

Bandicoot is a family of small mammals of Australia and New Guinea.

Some of them are as big as rabbits and others are as small as mice.

Bandicoots have long, narrow, pointed heads and tails like those of rats. Their second and third toes are grown together.

Bandicoots are marsupials. Like the kangaroo, the mother bandicoot carries and nurses her young in a pouch on her belly. However, the pouch opens at the bottom, instead of the top as in most other marsupials.

Often the bandicoot becomes a pest in Australian gardens. They live in burrows and eat insects and plants. When the animals move out of the fields and into cultivated areas where vegetables are being grown by the farmers, the farmers declare war with the bandicoots.