62 ENTOMOPHAGA. 



original describer, and which is figured at the head of the 

 present section, the Marsupial characters are more strongly 

 manifested in the general form of the jaw, and in the extent 

 and position of its inflected angle ; while the agreement with 

 the genus Didelphys in the number of the premolar and molar 

 teeth is complete. 



The form of the crowns of these teeth corresponds, how- 

 ever, so closely with that which has been described in the 

 Amphitherium Broderipii, as to argue strongly for their 

 close natural affinity ; and accordingly whatever additional 

 approximation to the Marsupial Order is made by the Phas- 

 colotherium, may be held to support the Marsupial nature of 

 the Thylacotherium although the proof be yet absent. 



Respecting the jaw of the Phascolotherium, " Some 

 years have elapsed," writes my friend Mr. Broderip, in 

 1828, " since an ancient stone-mason, living at Heddington, 

 who used to collect for me, made his appearance in my 

 rooms at Oxford, with two specimens of the lower jaws of 

 mammiferous animals, imbedded in Stonesfield slate, fresh 

 from the quarry. At the same time he brought several 

 other very fine Stonesfield fossils, the result of the same 

 trip. One of the jaws was purchased by my friend Pro- 

 fessor Buckland, who exclaimed against my retaining both, 

 and the other I lent to him some time ago. Dr. Buckland's 

 specimen, which wants incisor and canine teeth, has been 

 examined by M. Cuvier, and is figured by M. Prevost as 

 an illustration to his " Observations sur les Schistes calcaires 

 Oolitiques de Stonesfield en Angleterre," &c.,* the other 

 was lost, after the Professor had returned it ; and the loss 

 was, most unjustly as I must now acknowledge, attributed 

 to him. To my no small gratification, this specimen has 



* Ann. des Sciences, Nat. Avr. 1825. 



