ANIMALS. 449 



monkey and the nit. They are all less than the former ; they 

 have long tails, almost bare of hair ; and their fur, as well as 

 their shape, seems to place them near the rat kind. Some have 

 accordingly ranked them in that class ; but their being four- 



nWe to a]\ the species. Be that as it may, the marsnpiata are unquestion. 

 ably the most singular of all known quadrupeds. With the exceptiou of the 

 peculiarities of their generation, there is scarcely any character in common 

 among them. The organs of locomotion and digestion vary considerably, 

 And that in a manner so nicely graduated, that all the shades between the 

 Carnassiers, properly so called, and the genuine rodentia, are discoverable 

 among the animals in question by the character of the teeth. Their extremi. 

 ties are equally modified from those which are designed to dig the earth, to 

 those adapted for climbing with tlie utmost facility the loftiest trees. 



The feet among some, as the phascolomys, are calculated for digging in 

 the ground. In this case, there are five toes armed Avith powerful nails on 

 the fore feet, and four only on the liinder, with a small tubercle instead ot 

 thumb. With others (as the Kanguroos, Potoroos, and Perameles) the hin- 

 der feet are conformed for the execution of rapid leaps ; and then they have 

 but four toes, the second of which is very strong, longer than the others, 

 and furnished with a nail almost as thick as a hoof The two internal ones 

 are small and connected. The metatarsus is very long, a.s well as the limb t<> 

 which it belongs. The fore-paws are very short, and terminated by five 

 toes furnished with tolerably long talons. In the phalangers, which are 

 eminent climbers, the posterior thumb is considerably separated, and witlv- 

 out a claw ; the two toes which immediately follow it, are connected by the 

 skin as far as the last phalanx. The toes of the fore-feet differ little from 

 those of the common carnassiers, while in the koala these same toes are 

 divided into two groups for the act of seizing; the thumb and index being 

 on one side, and the three others on the opposite. The four hinder toes are 

 i-onnected two by two, and very distinct from the thiunb. In the dasyuri, 

 which run upon the ground like the martens, the foreJ'eet have five toes, 

 and the hinder four, all separated and armed with curved claws, while the 

 hinder thumb is but a simple tubercle. Finally, the didelphes which climb 

 trees have toes like the dasyuri, except that the posterior thumb is distinct, 

 and without a nail like that of the phalangers. The chironectes which 

 swim, differ from the didelphis, only in having the hinder feet palmate. 

 There is no tail in the phascolomys. In the koalas it is a simple tubercle, 

 but considerably long in all the other genera. In the didelphes, the chiro. 

 nectes, and the true phalangers, it is naked, scaly, and prehensile. In the 

 kanguroos and potoroos, it is strong, triangular, and conic, and concurs to 

 locomotion with the long hinder limbs. The isoodonta and the perameles 

 have it of the same form, but much less robust Finally, the dasyuri, and 

 particularly the flying phalangers, have it much elongated, and more or less 

 tufted. In the petauristae alone, we find the skin of the sides extended be- 

 tween the fore and hind legs, serving as a parachute after the manner of the 

 galeopitheci and polatouches. The crab-eating didelphis, the kauguroo, 

 the jierameles, the isoodon, the potoroo, the phalangers, the petaurist;*, 

 and the phascolomys alone, have the ventral pouch wliich has given a de. 

 uuminatiou to the entire tribe. In the rest the mammae are visible without, 



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