Miscellanies i?i Natural History. 71 



tills, with the dark brown colour of the iris, gives to the 

 animal a h\ ely appearance. Of a mcmhrana nktltavs, as 

 aniontr the quadruniana, scarcely any rudiment is to be seen. 

 The ears are large, black, naked, and, according to ap- 

 pearance, merely membranous, without any cartilaginous 

 fbids, and therefore nearly like those of the bat ; in my 

 animal also, without the \\'hite border which is ascribed to 

 others of this genus. 



The neck is short and thick, and the same is the case 

 with the rump, which is well covered with hair. Sometimes 

 the hair on the back is long and erect, almost as in the 

 ■badger ; its colour is white mixed with black, and darkest 

 on the shoulders. 



The bag on the belly is very apparent by its prominence, 

 espccialK' when the singular ossa viarsiiplalia or cornua 

 pelvis ahchminalia lie under it. The place of its aperture is 

 marked only by a longitudinal fissure. 



The tail is about the length of the body ; it is almost na- 

 ked, and as scaly as that of the rat, but a real cauda pre^ 

 her? si lis. 



The shoulders and fore legs are black, and covered with 

 soft hair. 1 he toes are naked, and of a flesh colour. The 

 hind feet are furnished with detached toes with a small flat 

 nail, but on all the oliier toes there are hooked claws of a 

 white colour. 



A figure of the animal, drawn from, the life, may be seen 

 in mv Ahlilduv.gcn naturhistoriscker Gegeasfandc, tab. 54. 



It is a real animal omnivoruni, and can feed upon any 

 kind of fruit ; it is fondest of plums, and of other food, 

 next to flesh, of fowl, game, and in particular of soup and 

 bouilli. It chews its food with great deliberation, and 

 catches the large pieces very dexterously with its tore feet ; 

 and it uses these feet with great address for dressing its 

 snout, on which occasions it sits on its hind legs like a 

 S(|uirrel. 



Its cry, which it seldom emits except when irritated, is a 

 weak kind of grunting. It drinks vciy little, and some- 

 times not for several clays. It seldom makes water, and 

 even when in tiood health voids its excrements only once 

 in four or five days. It however does ni'ither in the place 

 where it lies, but always retires to a corner of its keimel. 

 In general it preserves itself very clean ; and on the 

 whole is a quiet, good-natured animal ; slow, and as it 

 were cautious in all its motions; and of so strong a consti- 

 tution that the people in America ire accustomed to say, 

 K 4 *' if 



