344 Mr. Burnett's Illustrations of the Prcecocinatce. 



been redressed by succeeding writers; for the Carnassiers are 

 defined as possessing three sorts of teeth, while some of the 

 Marsupials want canines in one, and some in both their jaws ; 

 being, in fact, sacculated glires : they constitute by this, their 

 index, a series essentially distinct. 



But few of these animals were known to Linnaeus, and all 

 that were then discovered he included in the single genus 

 Didelphis, which was arranged among his Ferae ; and both 

 Blumenbach and Illiger adopted a nearly similar distribution. 

 Did their number require a subordinate demarcation of the 

 district into races, the variety of their dental developement 

 would seem to furnish a convenient guide. Whether future 

 discoveries may suggest more natural groups can only be matter 

 of conjecture. 



On the one hand, we find a race of these sacculated animals 

 very rapacious, and possessed of three sorts of teeth, having 

 canines in both their jaws; hence this race maybe called the Feri- 

 dentia : and, were it not for their pouches, they might be arranged 

 with the Ferae, allying themselves to the Insectivora,being chiefly 

 Entomophagous. In another race the upper canines are 

 wanting ; these are the Kangaroo Rats : they are chiefly carpo- 

 phagous ; and, from their dental structure, form a connexion 

 between the Ferae and the Glires, as also between one section 

 of the Marsupiates and the other: they may be called the 

 Semidentatae or Semidentia, and lead to the third Marsupial 

 race, which have no canines at all in either jaw ; thus asso- 

 ciating with the Glires, and hence termed the Gliridentia. The 

 Pedimanous species of this district would associate the Qua- 

 drupeds with the Manupeds ; the Balantia shews an affinity to 

 the Pleuropterus of the Alipeds ; and the united digits of some 

 other species would mark their affinity to the district which is 

 next to follow. ( Vide Table, p. 351.) 



The CORNIPEDAT/E (Cornipedates), hoofed or hoof- 

 footed quadrupeds, the last district of the present type, are 

 characterized by having all their four extremities freely ex- 

 serted by their feet terminating in toes more or less numerous 

 and more or less developed ; encased in hoofs, which are differ- 

 ently divided : none of them have abdominal pouches, and their 

 dental system is very various. The three races are distin- 

 guished by having one, two, or more toes predominantly deve- 



