1^8 MAMMALIA. 



forty-eight teeth. Their tail is hairy, and not prehensile. The 

 great claws of their fore feet announce their habit of digging in the 

 earth J and the tolerable length* of their hind ones, a swiftness of 

 gait. 



P. nasuhis, G., Ann. du Mus. IV. The muzzle much elon- 

 gated ; ears pointed ; fur a greyish brown. At the first glance 

 it resembles a Tenrec.(l) 



The species belonging to the second subdivision of the Mar- 

 supialia have two broad and long incisors in the lower jaw with 

 pointed and trenchant edges sloping forwards, and six cor- 

 responding ones in the upper jaw. Their superior canini 

 are also long and pointed, but all their inferior ones consist of 

 teeth so small that they are frequently hidden by the gum ; 

 they are sometimes altogether wanting in the lower jaw of the 

 last subgenus. 



Their regimen is chiefly frugivorous ; consequently their 

 intestines, the csecum particularly, are longer than in the 

 Opossum. The thumb is very large in all of them, and so 

 widely separated from the toes that it seems to slant back- 

 wards almost like that of Birds. It has no nail, and the two 

 following toes are united by the skin as far as the last pha- 

 lanx. It is from this circumstance that these animals have re- 

 ceived the name of Phalangers.(2) 



Phalangista. 



Phalangista, Cuv. Balantia, Illig.(3) 



The true Phalangers have not the skin of the flank extended ; four 

 back molars in each jaw, with four points in two rows j in front a 

 large one, conical and compressed, and between it and the superior 

 canine two small and pointed ones, to which correspond the three 



(1) The Peramele Bougainville of Quoy and Gaymard does not differ specifically 

 from the nasutus. The Peram. obesula, Geoff, is not so authentic. 



(2) The name of Fhalanger was given by Buffon to two individuals he had ob- 

 served, on account of the union of the two toes of the foot. That of Philander is 

 not, as might be thought, derived from the Greek, but from the Malay word Pe- 

 landor, which means Rabbit, applied by the inhabitants of Amboyna to a species 

 of Kanguroo. Seba and Brisson have used it indiscriminately for all the pouched 

 animals. The Phalangers, in the Moluccas, are called Couscous or Coussous. The 

 earlier travellers not having properly distinguished them from the Sarigues, gave 

 cause to believe that this last genus was common to the two continents. 



(3) Balantia, from BscAaVr/ov, purse or pouch. 



