872 ME. OLDFIELD THOilAS ON A SEW [DeC. 17, 



purposes of this paper, which deals mainly with generic characters, 

 the two have been treated as one. There are, it is true, certain 

 slight differences between Mr. Tomes's description of the teeth of 

 C. fuliginosus and those of the type of 0. ohscurus, but whether 

 these differences are due to age or specific distinction cannot be 

 made out without direct comparison. 



CiENOLESTES. 



General appearance not unlike that of a Eat or small Opossum. 

 External characters very much as in the Dasyurid genus 

 Phascologale. Head elongate. Nose naked, both in front and on 

 the top of the muzzle. Ears short, squarish, their inner surfaces 

 provided with several (three in C. ohscurus) tragoid projections. 

 Eore feet with five toes, of which the outer one, as well as the 

 pollex, has a distinct nail, while the middle three digits have each 

 a weU-developed curved claw. The third digit is the longest, the 

 second and fourth subequal, about 1 mm. shorter ; fifth reaching 

 to the end of the first phalanx of the fourth, first to the middle of 

 the same phalanx of the second. Palms naked, with one elongated 

 carpal pad, three ordinary digital, and one pollical pad. Hiud 

 foot of normal shape, not s3^ndactylous, and not modified into a 

 hand as in the Opossums. Hallux short, clawless, not properly 

 opposable \ its development very much as in Phascologale wallacei^. 

 Other digits subequal, tlie fourth slightly the longest ; all provided 

 with claws. Soles naked, with 6 pads, situated very much as is 

 shown in the figure of Phascologale wallacei just referred to ; but 

 all rather more elongated and not transversely striated. Tail 

 long, slender, rat-like ; so thinly haired as to appear naked, its 

 terminal inch below wholly naked ; it is therefore presumably 

 prehensile. " A small and rudimentary pouch present " (Tomes). 



SkuU in its general proportions something like that of a 

 Perameles, although thinner and more delicately built, with a 

 similarly elongated muzzle, smooth and rounded brain-case, and 

 obsolete supraorbital and cranial crest and ridges ; the zygomata 

 are, however, so much more boldly expanded as somewhat to spoil 

 the resemblance, which in any case does not apply to details. 

 Nasals long, thin, anterior two-thirds narrow, abnost parallel- 

 sided, but a little tapering forwards, their posterior third well 

 expanded, somewhat as in ordinary Didelphys, but not expanded 

 enough to meet the upper edge of the maxillary bone, ^s a 

 result, an anteorbital vacuity is left on each side in the position of, 

 and formed in exactly the same way as that of, so many Euminants. 

 Apart from the latter group, this vacuity is perfectly unique 

 among Mammals, and therefore is well worthy of special note. 



^ Mr. Tomes says " feet furaislied with an opposable thumb," but the 

 opposition, at least in C. ohscurus, is by no means comparable with that of 

 Didelphys. In the plate neither pollex nor hallux is shown as opposable, and 

 both they and the fifth digit of the hand are ornamented with long claws, about 

 the presence of which I venture to be somewhat sceptical, 



- Figured ' Cat. Marsupials,' pi. xxiii. fig. 3. 



