SYNOPSIS OF THE 



Le Yapock, Cuv. R6g. Anim. Petit Loutre de la Guy- 

 ane, Buff. Hist. Nat. Sup. vii. 159. 



Icon. Buff. Slip. VI. t. 22. nobis. 



Inhabits the banks of the Yapock, a river of Guyane. 



Obs. This species, v^^hich has been very generally treated 

 as an Otter, has been separated by Illiger into a distinct 

 genus, under the name of Cheironectes, or hand-sw^immers. 



■f 



Genus II. — Dasyurus. 



Incisors %, small and regular, canines i^, large ; cheek- 

 teeth If, the two first compressed and trenchant, the re- 

 mainder w^ith points on their crovrns ; head conical ; five 

 toes on the fore-feet, armed vrith crooked nails ; four on 

 those behind, unguiculated ; thumb without a nail, short, 

 distant from the fingers, being little else than a mere tuber- 

 cle ; tail long, covered all over with hairs ; a marsupial 

 pouch in the females. 



492. 1. Das. Cynocephalus (the Dog-faced Dasyurus.) 

 Yellowish-brown, crupper marked with transverse black 

 bands ; tail compressed. Size of a wolf. 



Didelphis Cynocephala, Harris, Transactions of the Lin. 

 Soc. vol. IX. Dasyurus Cynocephalus, Geoff. Ann. Mus. xv. 

 Thylacinus Harrisii, Tern. Monog. 63. 



Icon. Lin. Trans, ix. t. 19. 



Inhabits Van Diemen's Land. 



Mr. Brooks, it is understood; proposed to make this 

 species a type of a new genus, to be named Paracyon. M. 

 Temminck has since done so, and applied to it the name 

 Thylacynus. 



493. 2. Das. f/m^ii/^ (the Ursine Dasyurus.) Black, with 

 occasionally a very few white spots; tail not very long, but 

 naked on the under side, and subprehensile. 



192 



