ORDER CAHNASSIER. 259 



occasions, to establish the modifications which take place 

 independently of our influence, the organs in which they 

 occur, and the limits to which they arrive. With this view 

 all the varieties exhibited by the Mammalia should, as far 

 as possible, be represented and described, and on this occa- 

 sion we shall present to the reader, along with our descrip- 

 tion of the Brown Coati, a notice of its fawn-coloured 

 variety. 



We have detailed at considerable length, in our description 

 of the Red Coati, the principal organs of that species ; its 

 size, its proportions, its teeth, its senses, its paws, its toes, 

 the nature of the fur, and the principal uses which it makes 

 of its limbs. All that we have said on this subject equally 

 applies to the Brown Coati. M. F. Cuvier had both spe* 

 cies under his inspection at once, and after the minutest 

 comparison of their details, he declares that the only dif- 

 ference between them is in colour. We shall notice a 

 few particulars omitted in our account of the Red Coati, 

 and which the reader must consider as characteristic of 

 both species. The tubercles of the paws exhibit very pecu- 

 liar characters, which might of themselves suffice to dis- 

 tinguish the Coatis from the Racoons were there no other 

 points of distinction between these sub-genera, such as the 

 eyes, the elongation of the nose, the tail, and the general 

 physiognomy. It is principally in the fore-feet that these 

 tubercles are remarkable. In the first place, those with 

 which the extremities of the toes are furnished, are very 

 thick, and they are separated from those of the palm by 

 folds of the skin of a very peculiar character. There the 

 thumb communicates with a very large tubercle, divided 

 into two parts, which itself communicates behind with ano- 

 ther placed on the edge of the palm. The three middle 

 digits rest upon one and the same tubercle, which is pro- 

 longed from the external side of the paw, and behind which 

 another very strong one is found, which terminates the 



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