﻿THE DASYURES. 15 7 



hind limhs wns clean gone, and not even the trace of a stump 

 remained visible." 



The enormous crushing power of the teeth of this animal 

 has already been alluded to, and will be fully borne out by an 

 inspection of the skull. The cheek-teeth, as shown in the 

 figure on page 155, are especially characterised by their stout- 

 ness and close crowding together, the latter feature being due 

 to the shortness of the muzzle. The middle pair of upper 

 incisor teeth are larger than those next them, while the tusks or 

 canine teeth are very large and powerful. 



The skeletons of both the Thylacine and the Tasmanian 

 Devil may be distinguished from those of all the other mem- 

 bers of the family by the presence of a perforation on the inner 

 side of the lower end of the humerus, or upper bone of the 

 fore limb. In a skeleton of the present species in the Museum 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons it is, however, stated that 

 there is a perforation in one humerus and not in the other. The 

 absence of the same perforation in the Dasyures is a very un- 

 usual feature among Marsupials, nearly all of which retain in- 

 dications of their affinity with certain extinct reptiles by its 

 presence. 



THE DASYURES. GENUS DASYURUS. 



Dasyuriis, Geoffroy, Bull. Soc. Philom., vol. i., p. to6 (1796). 



General form usually slender and Weasel- or Civet-like, but 

 occasionally stouter. Ears long and narrow ; nose naked, with 

 a deep groove running down to the upper lip ; tail long, uni- 

 formly and thickly haired throughout; feet plantigrade, with 

 sharp, curved claws ; the first toe, or hallux, of the hind 

 foot very small or wanting ; soles of the feet granulated, and 

 nearly or wholly naked. Body spotted. Pouch opening ver- 

 tically downwards ; six or eight teats. Two pairs of premolar 



