MARSUPIALIA. Ill 



where their voracity is very inconvenient, &c. Their mouth is not so 

 wide, their muzzle not so pointed as those of the Opossums ; their hairy 

 ears are also shorter. They do not climb trees. 



Did. ursina, Harr. Linn. Trans. IX. xix, f. 2, and Encycl., Supp. 

 f. 6. (The Ursine Opossum). Long rough black hairs, with some 

 irregularly placed white spots ; the tail half as long as the body, al- 

 most naked underneath. Inhabits the north of Van Dieman's Land, 

 and is nearly the size of the badger. 



Das. macrourus, Geoff., Peron. Voy. pi. xxxiii, Schreb. CLII, 

 B, a. (The Long-tailed Dasyurus). Size of a cat ; tail as long as 

 the body; fur brown, spotted with white, both on the body and tail. 

 The tubercle of the thumb is still well marked in this species, but in 

 the following ones it can no more be seen. 



Das. Maugei, Geoff., Voy. de Freycin. Zool. pi. iv, Schreb. CLII. 

 B, b. (A kind of olive colour, spotted with white ; no spot on the 

 tail; a little smaller than the preceding. 



Did. viverrina, Shaw, Gen. Zool. CXI ; White, Bot. Bay, App. 

 285 ; Schreb. CLII, B, c. Black, spotted with white ; no spots 

 on the tail ; a third less than the first. 



Perameles, Geoff*. — Tiiylacis, Illig. 



The thumb of the hind foot short, like the first Dasyuri, and the two 

 following toes united by the membrane as far as the nails ; the thumb and 

 the little toe of their fore feet are simple tubercles, so that there seem to 

 be but three toes. They have ten incisors above, the external ones sepa- 

 rate and pointed, and only six below ; but their molars are the same as in 

 the Opossums, so that they have forty-eight teeth. Their tail is hairy, 

 and not prehensile. The great claws of their fore feet announce their 

 habit of digging in the earth ; and the tolerable length of their hind ones, 

 a swiftness of gait. 



P. nasutus, G., Ann. du Mus. IV. The muzzle much elongated; 



ears pointed; fur a greyish browni. At the first glance it resembles 



a Tenrec;|. 



The species belonging to the second subdivision of the Marsupialia 

 have two broad and long incisors in the lower jaw with pointed and trench- 

 ant edges sloping forwards, and six corresponding ones in the upper jaw. 

 Their superior canini are also long and pointed, but all their inferior ones 

 consist of teeth so small that they are frequently hidden by the gum ; they 

 are sometimes altogether wanting in the lower jaw of the last subgenus. 



Their regimen is chiefly frugivorous ; consequently, their intestines, the 

 caecum particularly, are longer than in the Opossum. The thumb is very 

 large in all of them, and so widely separated from the toes that it seems 

 to slant backwards almost like that of birds. It has no nail, and the two 



» Pera, purse, Melcs, Badger. See Mem. Geoff., Ann. du Mus. torn. IV. 

 t The Perameh Bougainville of Quoy and Gaynard does not difler specifically from 

 the nasutus. The Peram obesula, Geoff., is not so authentic. 



