ORDER CARNASSTER. 413 



In the influential characters of dentition, and of the 

 toes, the sub-genus Paradoxurus approximates to the Civets. 

 In its heavy form, general physiognomy, and especially the 

 plantigrade mode of walking, it approaches the Badgers, 

 and in the sub-prehensile power, or spiral twist of its tail, 

 it is assimilated, in some degree only, to the transatlantic 

 Monkeys, the Poto, and other genera. 



The Pougoune is entirely plantigrade. Its toes, five in 

 number, on each foot, are furnished, at their extremity, 

 with a thick tubercle, which hinders the point of the nails 

 from touching, and wearing on the ground ; these nails are 

 also nearly as retractile as those of Cats, and are slender 

 and sharp, so that they are enabled to use them like the fe- 

 linae, not merely as offensive weapons, but also as an effec- 

 tive mean of ascending and descending trees, fyc. The feet 

 are nearly palmate, united by a membrane, even to the last 

 phalanx. They are furnished with four naked fleshy tu- 

 bercles. The relative length of the toes decreases in the 

 following order : the middle toe, annular, index, little toe, 

 and thumb. 



m 



The tail is one of the greatest peculiarities in the ani- 

 mal, and seems, indeed, to have nothing corresponding 

 exactly to it in any other. When the tail is as near to a 

 straight line as the animal can make it, it is, nevertheless, 

 twisted from right to left towards its extremity, so that by 

 a particular disposition of the vertebrae, no doubt, the up- 

 per part of the tail is turned downwards, whence results 

 the following phenomenon : when the tail is curled by the 

 action of the upper muscles, this movement is made, at 

 first, from the upper to the under side ; and if the muscles 

 cease to act when the curling is only half effected, the tail, 

 in that case, seems organized like the ordinary prehensile 

 tails of other animals ; but if the muscles continue their 

 action, the tail returns to its natural state, and the curling 



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