DASYURID^E. 121 



hind-feet are furnished with four well developed toes, 

 which differ but little in length ; the claws scarcely 

 differ from those of the fore-feet. In Dast/urus 

 macrourus and D. Geoffroyi, there is a small nail- 

 less thumb : in D. Maugei the thumb is not visible 

 externally, but its bones exist in the skeleton.* 

 Though small, the thumb in D. macrourus is oppose- 

 able, as in the Opossums, and in the genus Phasco- 

 gale. The hind-feet are naked beneath, but the sides 

 of the heel are clothed with hair. The ears are of 

 moderate size, and in general tolerably well clothed 

 with hair. The tail is not prehensile, always well 

 clothed, and usually bushy : the tip of the muzzle is 

 naked. These animals do not live upon trees like 

 most of the true Opossums, they hide themselves 

 in holes or in crevices of rocks, during the day, 

 and at night prowl about like weasels in search of 

 their prey. They are extremely voracious, and very 

 destructive to the poultry and live stock of the colo- 

 nists of Van Diemen's Land and the continent of Aus- 

 tralia. 



The third division of the Dasyures, to which M. 

 Temminck gives the name Pkascogale, comprises 



* In a skeleton foot of the Thylacinus, I do not find these 

 bones, we have, therefore, in the Dasyures, a complete 

 transition from the Opossums, with their large opposeable 

 thumbs, to the thumbless Thylacinus ; first, in the reduced 

 size observable in Phascoyale and Dasyurus macrourus ; next, 

 in the existence of the bones only, without any external ap- 

 pearance of the member, as in D. Maugei, and, lastly, in the 

 absence of the bones themselves. 



