﻿150 Allen's naturalist's library. 



FAMILY DASYURID^. THE DASYURES, 

 THYLACINES, etc. 



Limbs subequal ; fore feet with five toes; hind feet with the 

 third and fourth toes completely separate, the first (hallux) 

 small and clawless, or wanting, and the others of subequal size. 

 Tail long, hairy, and non-prehensile. Stomach simple ; intes- 

 tine without a blind appendage or caecum ; pouch, when pre- 

 sent, opening forwards or downwards. Four pairs of upper, 

 and five of lower incisor teeth ; and the whole of the dentition 

 of a thoroughly carnivorous type, the upper molars being more 

 or less triangular in form, and carrying a number of sharp 

 cusps. 



This family, which is distributed over Australia and Tasmania, 

 New Guinea, and the adjacent islands, exclusive of those of 

 the Austro-Malayan region, embraces the only thoroughly car- 

 nivorous Australian Marsupials, and likewise the largest repre- 

 sentatives of the Polyprotodont subdivision of the order. 

 Although all its members subsist on an animal diet, the smaller 

 kinds are either wholly or partially insectivorous. None appear 

 to be carnivorous. 



As a whole, the Dasyuridcn may be regarded as among the 

 most generalised of all living Marsupials, some of them, and 

 more especially the little Banded Anteater, retaining indications 

 of affinity with the extinct Jurassic Marsupials of Europe which 

 are unknown elsewhere. 



THE THYLACINES GENUS THYLACINUS. 

 Thylacinus, Temminck, Monogr. Mamm., vol. i., p. 60 (1827). 



This genus, together with all the other members of the 

 family, with the exception of the Banded Anteater, constitute a 

 sub-family {Dasyurmce), characterised as follows : Tongue 



