36 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



The fur is soft, woolly close to the body, and harsher to- 

 wards the points. 



The habits of this animal, which has been found on the 

 banks of the Yapoch, a river of Guyana, are not known ; 

 nor is it yet ascertained if the female have an inguinal 

 pouch, like the majority of the Didelphes, or only a longitu- 

 dinal fold of the skin of the belly like the Marmose. 



The several species appropriated to the genus or sub- 

 genus Dasyurus, though they differ very materially in 

 external appearance, are as assimilated in impulses and 

 habits as are their influential physical characters. The 

 cheek-teeth at once cutting and pointed, display the gene- 

 ral nature of their character ; fitted for carnivorous regi- 

 men, their habits must necessarily be ferocious and pre- 

 datory, proportioned to their size and strength. 



Their general organization is very like that of the 

 Opossums, like them also the Dasyuri live on fish and 

 insects ; but being destitute of the thumb to the hind feet, 

 and also of any prehensile power in the tail, they have not, 

 like the Opossums, the means of pursuing their prey in the 

 trees. During day they remain concealed in cavities of 

 rocks, or in hollow trees, and sally forth under the pro- 

 tection of darkness in search of the Ornythorynchi, Echidnas, 

 and insects. They also seek, with avidity, the half-cor- 

 rupted bodies of Seals and cetaceous animals on the sea- 

 shore, and are not unfrequently known to intrude into the 

 dwellings of the natives of New Holland and Van Diemen's 

 Land in search of food. 



The Dog-Faced or Zebrine Dasyurus, is a singular look- 

 ing animal, by no means pretty. The fur is short and 

 soft; the ground colour of which is a dirty yellowish- 

 brown, lighter on the belly, and of a deep gray about the 

 back. From the insertion of the tail, along the spine, to 

 about one half its length, there are equi-distant transverse 

 stripes, longest on the thighs, and becoming gradually 



