396 Zoological Society. 



The animal is plantigrade ; its hinder limbs are rather longer 

 than those in front. The palm of the hand is naked, as well as that 

 of the foot, which is rather narrow and somewhat elongated, as in 

 certain climbing Mammals. The fore-feet are provided with live 

 toes, which are free, moderately short, and naked beneath as well as 

 the part above, on the ungueal phalanx of which the digital pad is 

 large, and forms a little cushion, as in the lingers of the Lemuridce 

 which are provided with three pairs of mammae (Tarsius, Galago, 

 and Cheirogale) : the thumb has the same direction as the other fin- 

 gers, and like them it has a little depressed nail, which covers but a 

 small portion of the apical fleshy pad. The middle finger is the largest, 

 the fingers joining it are nearly equal in length, and the thumb is 

 rather shorter than the outer finger. 



The principal peculiarities in the hinder limbs consist in the 

 smallness of the middle toe and that next it on the inner side, and 

 these toes are united as far as the last phalanx, as in the Syndactyle 

 Marsupialia, and like these animals, are provided each with a pointed 

 nail bearing some resemblance to a little hoof. The thumb is op- 

 poseable to the other toes, has no nail, but terminated by a fleshy pad : 

 the fourth and fifth toes are provided with a pad similar to that of 

 the corresponding toes of the fore-feet ; they have moreover small de- 

 pressed nails, which do not extend to the outer margins of the pad : 

 the fourth toe is the largest, and the fifth, though shorter, extends 

 beyond the line of the two syndactyle toes. 



Before pointing out certain peculiarities of the skeleton of the 

 Tarsipes, we may add, that in the male the scrotum is suspended in 

 advance of the penis, and that in the female the mammae, four in 

 number, are placed in an abdominal pouch. There is but one opening 

 for excretion and defecation. 



In Paris there are several specimens of this singular animal. 

 The skull of a female studied by MM. Gervais and Verreaux had 

 the hinder part, as well as the lower portion in the mesial line, 

 injured ; and this circumstance, combined with its small size, ob- 

 serves these authors, renders it difficult of examination ; they were 

 able, however, to observe many of its essential characters. 



The skull is much elongated, especially its facial portion ; and 

 studying it isolately, one would be tempted to refer it to an animal 

 of the Edentate order, and probably to the family of Ant-eaters, 

 Myrmecophaga, &c. The sutures of its bones are not obliterated as 

 those of the Monotremata of the same age, but their distinction is less 

 marked on the face than in the cranial region properly so called. 

 The nasal bones are elongated, and terminate in an angle project- 

 ing at their point of junction with the anterior margin of the fron- 

 tals ; these are contracted at the interorbital portion, but they pre- 

 sent no postorbital process to contribute towards the formation of a 

 complete circular orbit : their anteroposterior development exceeds 

 the transverse diameter. 



The skull is broader in the parietal region, and the brain appears to 

 have been more voluminous than in most other marsupial animals. In 

 this form of cranium we perceive an analogy in the genus Macroscelides . 

 The cranial cavity is proportionally more ample than in the great 



