i\ 



1825.] .-■ Scientific NoticeS'-^Zoology^ ir'^ 235 



7. Latrobife, 



M. Gmelin, of Tubingen, has found the composition of the 

 mineral named Latrobite by Mr. Brooke, and described by him 

 in the Annals of Philosophy, vol. v, New Series, to be as fol- 

 lows : 



'^, Silica 44-653 



Alumina 38-814 



Lime 8-291 



Oxide of manganese 3*160 



Potash 6-575 



t, 101-493 



Zoology. 

 8. On the Teeth of the Koala, By J. E. Gray, Esq. 



Ouvier, in his Animal Kingdom, only describes the cutting 

 teeth of the Koala. Blainville, in his Podomus of a new Distri- 

 bution of Animals, abridged in the ninth volume of this Journal, 



describes the cutting teeth as - upper middle longest, false 



canine ;r^, crrinders, t-^ with four tubercles. Mr. F. Cuvier, in 



his work on the Teeth of Mammalia, observes, that he has not 

 seen a skull of the Koala, but that it must doubtless be allied to 

 the Phalangers. I some time ago met with a skull of this 

 animal in the collection of the College of Surgeons, and I am 

 indebted to the kindness of Mr. Clift for allowing me to take a 

 description of it. 



The skull short, compressed, and depressed, so as to be sub- 

 quadrangular. The temporal fossae large, the cutting teeth 



- upper, two front large, distant at the base, conversing dt the 



apex, the rest small ; lower large, approximating together at 



the tip; canine teeth ^^, small conical placed on the suture of 



the intermaxillary bone, grinders ^^ all with two fangs, the 



front one on each side smallest, rather compressed; the rest 

 depressed, each with four acute tubercles. 



Blainville describes his animal as chocolate brown, and Cuvier 

 and Goldfus as ash grey, the latter agrees with the five specimens 

 that I have seen. Whether this difference was occasioned by 

 Cuvier and Blainville describing two different animals, or by the 

 latter, in his hasty notes, having confounded it with the Wom- 

 bat in his description, I am not able to determine. 



9. On the JJmhilicus of Marsupial Animals* 

 It has been generally thought that Marsupial animals are des- 



