MARSUPIALIA. 135 



but no canini ; in the upper, two long incisors in front, a few 

 small ones on the sides, and two small canines. It compre- 

 hends but one genus. 



Koala, Cuv. Lipurus, Gold. Phascolarctos, Blain. 



The Koahic have a short, stout body; short legs, and no tail. The 

 toes of their fore feet, five in number, when about to seize any object, 

 separate into two groups ; the thumb and index on one side, and the 

 remaining three on the other. The thumb is wanting on the hind 

 foot ; the two first toes of which are united like those of the Phalan- 

 gers and the Kanguroos. One species only is known : 



K. cinerea ', Lipurus cinereus, Gold.; Schreb. CLV, A, a. (The 

 Koala.) Ash coloured ; passes one part of its life in trees, and 

 the other in burrows it excavates at their foot. The mother 

 carries her young one for a long time on her back. 



Finally, our sixth division of the Marsupialia, or the 



Phascolomys, Geoff.(l) 



Consists of animals which are true Rodentia in the teeth and intes- 

 tines, their only relation to the Carnaria consisting in the articu- 

 lation of their lower jaw; and in a rigorously exact system, it would 

 be necessary to class them with the Rodentia. We should even 

 have placed them there, had we not been led to them by a regular 

 uninterrupted series from the Opossums to the Phalangers, from the 

 latter to the Kanguroos, and from the Kanguroos to the Phascolo- 

 mys ; and finally, were it not that the organs of generation are every 

 way exactly similar to those of the Marsupialia. 



They are sluggish animals, with large, flat heads, and bodies that 

 look as if they had been crushed. They are without a tail ; have five 

 nails on each of the fore feet, and four, with a small tubercle, in 

 place of a thumb, on each of the hind ones, all very long and fit for 

 digging. Their gait is excessively slow. They have two long in- 

 cisors in each jaw, almost similar to those of the Rodentia ; and 

 each of their grinders has two transverse ridges. 



They feed on grass ; their stomach is pyriform, and their caecum 

 short and wide, furnished like that of Man, and of the Ourang-Ou- 

 tang, with a vermiform appendage. The penis is bifurcated, like that 

 of the Opossums. One species only is known, the 



Phas. ursinus ; Diddphis wsina, Shaw; Peron. Voy, pi. xxxviii, 

 (The Wombat.) Size of a Badger; fur abundant, of a more 



(1) Phascolomys, a pouched rat, from (fao-KaAov andjMWf. 



