ORDER CARNASSIER. 269 



ner of the Coatis, and completely turning back the foot. 

 This action presupposes a very peculiar conformation in 

 the bones of the leg. It often made use of its tail to pre- 

 vent falls, and even to draw objects towards it, which it 

 could not reach with its hands. Its voice, when calm, con- 

 sisted in a little hissing, very soft ; but it could utter 

 stronger cries, like the barking of a young dog. 



The celebrated and scientific traveller before mentioned, 

 the Baron de Humboldt, tells us that the Poto makes use of 

 its long tongue to suck honey, and that it is a great de- 

 stroyer of the nests of wild bees. The missionaries, ac- 

 cordingly, have given it the name of the Honey-Bear. He 

 adds, that this animal was formerly among the number of 

 those reduced to a domestic state by the aborigines of the 

 temperate parts of New Grenada. 



Pennant calls this animal the Yellow Macauco. 



The Badger comes next ; and though but a single spe- 

 cies, yet constitutes a sub-genus in itself. It possesses a 

 system of organization exclusively peculiar. No other 

 species can, with propriety, be placed along side of it. 

 We might imagine that it was withdrawn from all the 

 ordinary influences which operate on animal life, by some 

 particular and inexplicable power, impelling it beyond the 

 common laws of nature, and we might be tempted, in this 

 instance, even to accuse nature of impotence or irregularity, 

 had we not learned rather to distrust our own conjectures, 

 than to doubt of the power, the wisdom, and the infinite 

 benevolence of the Creator. 



But if the Badger be isolated, as a species, it yet enters 

 very naturally as a genus or sub-genus of our author, into 

 the series of those animals which are characterized by 

 a tuberculous molar at the bottom of each jaw. These 

 molars, in the Badger, are distinguished (the upper ones 



