ORDER QUADRUMANA. 77 



foot, the two first toes of which are joined together 

 as in the preceding genera. 



But one species is known, with ash-coloured 

 hair, which passes a part of its life in trees and 

 another part in burrows dug with its feet. The 

 mother carries her young one for a long time on her 

 back. 



Finally, our sixth division of the Marsupiata will 

 be 



The Phascolomes. (Phascolomys, Geoff*.) 



These are true rodentia by the teeth and the intes- 

 tines. The only affinities they preserve to the Car- 

 nassiers consist in the articulation of the lower jaw, 

 and in a rigorous system it would be necessary to 

 class them with the rodentia. We should, indeed, 

 have so classed them, had we not been conducted to 

 them by an unbroken series from the didelphes to 

 the phalangers ; from those to the kanguroos ; and 

 from the kanguroos to the phascolomes ;j and also if 

 the organs of generation had not been precisely 

 similar in all the pouched animals. 



They are heavy animals, with a large flat head, 

 short legs, and shapeless body. They are without 

 a tail, and have five nails on the front- toes, and four, 

 with a small tubercle instead of thumb, on the hinder 

 feet, all long and proper for digging. Their gait is 

 excessively slow. They have in each jaw two long 



* Pouched Rat, from tpa.vv.w'hov and ^.S;. 



