MARSUPIAL QUADRUPEDS OF NEW HOLLAND. 259 



formed at this period, was that which still continues to bear 

 the name of Dasyurus, by which it was then distinguished ; 

 though he has undoubtedly the farther merit of having at 

 least indicated the affinities of the phalangers, and the neces- 

 sity of their generic separation. 



Such was the state in which this department of Zoology 

 continued till the return of Baudin's expedition in 1804 ; 

 when, to use M. Geoffroy's own words, the rich materials col- 

 lected by the accompanying naturalists, Peron and Lesueur, 

 added to the marsupial animals already known on the conti- 

 nent, new systems of organic modifications, and types of new 

 genera. From these data the French naturalist was enabled 

 to establish the genera Perameles and Phascolomys ; though 

 it must be observed that the animals so denominated, as well 

 as the dasyures and phalangers before mentioned, had been 

 long previously described in the works of Shaw, Bewick, and 

 other British zoologists. Monographs of these, and of some 

 of the former genera, were afterwards published in successive 

 volumes of the 'Annales du Museum d' Histoire Naturelle; ' 

 where their characters, according to M. Geoflroy's view of the 

 subject, were finally settled, and their different species accu- 

 rately described. From this period nothing farther was at- 

 tempted in the Zoology of the marsupials, till the appearance 

 of Illiger' s ' Prodromus Systematis Mammalium et Avium,' in 

 1811. Three important separations were effected in this va- 

 luable work : the Cheironectes were distinguished from the 

 JDidelphes, the Petaurisis from the Phalangers, and the Hyp- 

 siprymni from the Kangaroos. In adverting to this subject, 

 M. Geoffroy criticises, * with considerable warmth and asper- 

 ity of language, the presumption of Illiger in interfering with 

 the divisions which he had formerly established ; and casts 

 an unmerited reflection on the memory of the German natu- 

 ralist, as having been more conversant with the details of 

 classical philology, than with the organic structure and affi- 

 nities of the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, the labours of 

 Illiger must be regarded, by every impartial judge, as the 

 completion of the work which M. Geoffroy had himself com- 

 menced, and as presenting the first really natural and unex- 

 ceptionable generic distribution of marsupial animals. As 

 such it was adopted by Baron Cuvier, in the 'Regne Animal,' 

 and its merits have since been tacitly acknowledged by all 

 subsequent writers, not even excepting M. Geoffroy himself. 

 M. De Blainville added, in 1814, the new genus Phascolarc- 

 tos, and M. Temminck, on the appearance of his ' Monogra- 



» Diet, des Sci. Nat,, Art. ' Marsupiaux. ' 



