70 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



destitute of nail, and the two toes which follow it 

 are joined together by the skin, even as far as the 

 last phalanx. This arrangement has caused these 

 animals to be termed, 



Phalange rs, (Phalangista, Cuv.) 



1%<?Phalangers properly so called, (Balantia, Illig.)* 



Have not the skin of the flanks extended. They 

 have in each jaw on each side four back grinders, 

 each presenting four points on two ranks, in front a 

 large conical one compressed, and between this and 

 the upper canine two small and pointed ones ; to 

 which correspond the three very small ones below, 

 of which we have spoken. The tail is always pre- 

 hensile. 



Some have the tail in a great measure scaly. 

 They live in the Moluccas on trees, where they seek 

 for insects and fruits. When they see a man they 

 suspend themselves by the tail, and it is possible to 

 make them fall through lassitude, by continuing to 



* The name phalanger was given by Buffon to a single spe- 

 cies known in his time, on account of the union of the two toes of 

 the foot. That of philander is not, as might be supposed derived 

 from the Greek, but from the word pelandor, which in Malay means 

 a rabbit, and which the inhabitants of Amboyna give to a species of 

 the kangaroo. Seba and Brisson have applied it indistinctly to all 

 pouched animals. In the Moluccas the phalangers are called cous- 

 cous or coussous. The first travellers, not having sufficiently distin- 

 guished them from the sarigues. gave occasion to believe that this 

 last genus was common to the two continents. Balantia comes 

 from Batten h>v, a purse or pouch. 



