MAMMALIA. 613 



1—1 1-1 4-4 



flat crowns. Dental formula i. - — r , p. ^j ^ , m. ■ . _ = 24. 



Claws strong, fossorial. Tail very short. 



Sp. Phctscolomys fossorWAGtfEU, Phascolomys Wombat Peron, Desm., Peron 

 et Lesdeur, Voyage de decouv., PL 28, Gderin Icon., Mammif. PI. 22, 

 fig. 4, Waterh. Nat. Lib. PI. 32 ; the cranium figured in CnviER R. Ani., 

 PI. 2, figs. 4 — 6, Owen Transact, of the Zool. Soc. Vol. 11. PI. 71, fig. 6, 

 the skeleton ibid. PI. 68, the teeth in F. Cuv, Dents des Mammif. PI. 44. 

 The wombat is from two to three feet long, the tail only half an inch. The 

 animal is of a brown colour and in its air somewhat resembles a small bear ; 

 it lives in holes underground and is found in the south of New Holland 

 and in Van Diemen's Land. A skull from the south of New Holland, 

 investigated by Owen, seemed to him to belong to another species, which 

 he names Phascolomys laiifrons, of which, as far as I know, no further 

 accounts exist ; see Transact. Zool. Soc. Vol. in. pp. 303 — 306, PI. 37. 

 Whilst the rest of the marsupiates have only thirteen or twelve ribs, the 

 ivombat possesses fifteen oi- (in the skeleton at Leyden) sixteen. Although 

 the tail beyond the pelvis is short, there are nine or ten caudal vertebrce (or 

 rather, if the three vertebrae between the two iliac bones be alone regarded 

 as sacral vertebrae, even thirteen or fourteen). Remains also of a fossil 

 species have been met with in caves in New Holland. lu the neighbour- 

 hood of this fossil genus ought also to be placed the fossil genus Diprotodon 

 Owen, of which remains have been found in the same caves and in alluvial 

 deposits. This animal almost attained the size of Hippopotamus. Owen 

 Appendix to Mitchell's Three Expeditions into the interim' of Australia, 

 1830, Svo, Vol. II. p. 362, Rep)ort of the British Association for 1844, 

 p. 223. 



Family III. Macropoda s. Salientia\ Six superior incisors, 

 two large inferior, procumbent ; canines either none or only in the 



upper jaw, approximate to the incisors ; molars ( -z — ^ ) remote 



from the anterior teeth by a large interval ; anterior molar with a 

 compressed narrow crown ; four remaining molars furnished with 

 two transverse tubercles. Posterior feet longer than anterior, tetra- 

 dactylous, with two inner toes slender, small, conjoined as far as 

 the small claws. Tail long, haired, not voluble. 



The kangaroos are animals from the eastern part of the southern hemi- 

 sphere, of which as early as the beginning of the last century a species from 

 the Aroe Islands, under the name of Filander, was described by De Bruyn 

 and Valentin (De Bruyn Reizen over Moskovien door Perzie en Indie, 

 Amsterdam, i7i4j PL ■213), but of which since the end of that century, 



Poephaga (grass-eating) Owen. 



