daous and ouços) is not prehensile. Their hinder thumb is also much shorter, and like a tubercle. They inhabit New Holland, and live on insects, carcasses, &c., sometimes penetrating even into the houses, where their voracity renders them very unseasonable guests. Their mouth is less divided, their muzzle less pointed, their ears are hairy, and shorter than in the sarigues. They do not climb trees.

The Dog-headed Dasyurus, (Did. Cynocephala,) Harris, Soc. Lin. IX. XIX.

As large as a dog (three feet and a half long without the tail, which is nearly two,) tail compressed; gray fur.

The Rough Dasyurus, (Did. Ursina, id. ib.)

With long, coarse, black hairs, and some white spots irregularly distributed. It inhabits with the preceding the north of Van Dieman's Land. Mr. Harris gives it eight incisors above and ten below; makes the tail slightly prehensile, and naked on the under side. It may probably form a new sub-genus when better known.

The Long-tailed Dasyurus, (Das. Macrouros), Geoff. Peron. Voy. pl. xxx111.

As large as a marten, with a tail as long as the body. Brown fur spotted with white covering the body and the tail.

68

The Dasyurus of Maugé.

Olive-coloured, spotted with white, but without spots on the tail. Somewhat less than the preceding.

The Dasyurus of White, (Did. Viverrina, Shaw,) Gen. Zool. CXI. White Bot. b. App. 285.

Black, spotted with white, without spots on the tail. One-third less than the preceding.

The Tapod-Tafa, White, Bot. b. App. 281.

Uniformly grayish.

The Pencilled or Brush-tailed Dasyurus, (Did. penicillata, Shaw) Gen. Zool. I. II. pl. cxIII.'

Gray, the tail covered with black and rough hairs.

The Dwarf Dasyurus.

Less than a rat, of an ashy-red. The thumb longer, and the teeth more equal and more contiguous than in the preceding species. Inhabits the South of Van Diemen's Land.

The PERAMELES, (PERAMELES, Geoff) Phylacis, Illig.

Have the hinder thumb equally short with the Dasyuri, and the two succeeding toes are united together by a skin as far as the nails. The great and small toe of the fore-feet have the form of simple

tubercles. The upper incisors are ten in number, the external ones of which are pointed and separated. The lower incisors are six only. Their molars are the same as those of the Sarigues. They have forty-eight teeth in all. The tail is hairy and not prehensile. They also inhabit Australasia.

Their large nails, almost straight, denote that they dig into the ground, and their long hind-feet that their course must be rapid.

The Perameles with pointed muzzle, (Perameles Nasutus, G.) Ann. du Mus. IV.

With muzzle exceedingly elongated, pointe ears, and fur of a grayish-brown. It resembles the tenrec at the first glance.

The second subdivision of the Marsupiata possesses in the lower jaw, two long and large incisors, pointed, and with trenchant edges, inclining forwards, and having six corresponding ones in the upper jaw. Their upper canines are also long and pointed. But the lower canines are such excessively small teeth, that they are often concealed by the gums. The last sub-genus is even sometimes found to want these lower teeth altogether.

Their regimen is in a great measure frugivorous. Their intestines, and above all, their cæcum, is accordingly longer than those of the Sarigues. They have all a large thumb, so much separated from the other toes as to have the appearance of being directed backwards almost like that of birds. It is

destitute of nail, and the two toes which follow it are joined together by the skin, even as far as the last phalanx. This arrangement has caused these animals to be termed,

PHALANGERS, (Phalangista, Cuv.)

The PHALANGERS PROPERLY SO CALLED, (Balantia, Illig.)*

Have not the skin of the flanks extended. They have in each jaw on each side four back grinders, each presenting four points on two ranks, in front a large conical one compressed, and between this and the upper canine two small and pointed ones which correspond the three very small ones below of which we have spoken. The tail is always pre

hensile.

Some have the tail in a great measure scaly. They live in the Moluccas on trees, where they seek for insects and fruits. When they see a man they suspend themselves by the tail, and it is possible to make them fall through lassitude, by continuing to

* The name phalanger was given by Buffon to a single species known in his time, on account of the union of the two toes of the foot. That of philander is not, as might be supposed derived rom the Greek, but from the word pelandor, which in Malay means 1 rabbit, and which the inhabitants of Amboyna give to a species of the kangaroo. Seba and Brisson have applied it indistinctly to all pouched animals. In the Moluccas the phalangers are called couscous or coussous. The first travellers, not having sufficiently distinguished them from the sarigues, gave occasion to believe that this last genus was common to the two continents. Balantia comes m Baλarrior, a purse or pouch.

stare at them for some time. They diffuse an unpleasant odour, yet their flesh is eatable.

As to their colours, some are whitish, some gray spotted with black, some red with a brown streak along the spine (which are most common), and some brown with white crupper. But the limits of their species have not yet been precisely determined. Linné's denomination of Didelphis Orientalis embraces them all. (Buff. XIII. x. xI.)

The Fox-like Phalanger, (Did. Lemurina et Vulpina, Shaw.) Bruno de Viq. d'Az. White, Voy. 278.

As large as a rat, or even as a cat, grayish-brown, more pale underneath, with a tail chiefly black.

The Phalanger of Cook, (Cook, Last Voy., pl. viii.

Less than a cat, reddish-gray, white underneath, red in the flanks, a white interval towards the end of the tail.

The FLYING PHALANGERS, (PETAURUS, Shaw.) Phalan

gista, Illig.

Have the skin of the flanks more or less extended between the legs, like the polatouches (flying squirrels) among the rodentia, which permits them to sustain themselves for some instants in the air and to make more extended leaps. They are also found no where but in New Holland.

In some of this species are found some lower ca nine teeth, but extremely small. Their upper ca.