XII THE KINKAJOU 429 
being nocturnal and mainly arboreal in habit. There are appar- 
ently three species, of which 2. astutus is the best known, having 
been on several occasions exhibited at the Zoological Society’s 
Gardens, the last examples so lately as 1900. The animal was 
for a long time believed to be allied to the Oriental Paradoxures, 
and its occurrence in America was therefore puzzling. The real 
affinities of the creature were, however, definitely set at rest by 
Sir W. Flower, and later accounts of its anatomy have confirmed 
Fre. 215.—Cunning Bassarise. Bassariscus astutus. x}. (From Nature.) 
this opinion.’ The vertebrae are more numerous than in Pro- 
cyon, and the teeth are slightly different ; otherwise it presents 
many likenesses to its nearest ally. The ears are long; the nose 
is grooved ; and the palms and soles are naked. 
The Kinkajou, Cercoleptes, is likewise an American Arctoid. 
It ranges from Central Mexico down to the Rio Negro in Brazil. 
It was at one time confounded, and, considering its external 
appearance, not unnaturally, with the Lemurs. Sir Rk. Owen 
dispelled this view by a careful dissection of the creature. Never- 
theless, there are certain anatomical features in which it differs 
1 Beddard, Proc. Zool, Soc. 1898, p. 129. 
