64 ENTOMOPHAGA. 



concludes Mr. Broderip, " rests only upon the portion of its 

 lower jaw, figured in the plate accompanying the present 

 memoir, (for the specimen figured by M. Prevost appears to 

 have belonged to a different animal,) it would be presump- 

 tuous in me to pronounce on its generic identity with 

 Didelphis Cuv. But, until some more able anatomist shall 

 correct the generic name, I may be permitted, for the sake 

 of convenience and perspicuity, to name it Didelphis BucJc- 



The statements and arguments of those Anatomists who 

 first applied their skill to the reconsideration of the Stones- 

 field jaws, and who have not only rejected the reference of 

 the present fossil to the genus Didelphys but to the Class 

 Mammalia, have already been discussed, and I shall now 

 cite those observations which, while they favour its claims 

 to be admitted, not only into the Mammalian Class, but 

 into the Marsupial Order, at the same time establish its 

 generic distinction, and necessitate the imposition of a new 

 generic name. 



The condyle of the jaw of the Phascolotherium here 

 described, (fig. 20, a,) instead of being vertically split, as 

 in the specimens of Amphiiheriwm, is fortunately entire, 

 and stands out in bold relief from the Oolitic matrix ; it 

 presents exactly the same form and degree of convexity as 

 in the genera Didelphys and Dasyurus. In its relative 

 position to the series of molar teeth, with which it is on a 

 level, it corresponds with Dasyurus more nearly than with 

 Didelphys : in the Dasyurus ursinus, in fact, as well as in 

 the allied Marsupial genus Thylacinus, the condyle has 

 precisely the same relative position to the molar series ; so 

 that this particular structure in the jaw of the Phascolo- 

 therium affords no argument against its admission into the 

 Marsupial series. 



