THE KINKAJOU 



429 



being nocturnal and mainly arboreal in habit. There are appar- 

 ently three species, of which B. asfutus is the best known, having 

 been on several occasions exhibited at the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens, the last examples so lately as 1900. The animal was 

 for a long time believed to be allied to the Oriental Paradoxures, 

 and its occurrence in America was therefore puzzling. The real 

 affinities of the creature were, however, definitely set at rest by 

 Sir W. Flower, and later accounts of its anatomv have confirmed 



Fig. 215.— Cunning Bassarisc. Bassariscus astutvs. x J. {Fmm Kalure.) 



this opinion.^ The vertebrae are more numerous than in Fro- 

 cyon, and the teeth are slightly different ; otherwise it presents 

 many Hkenesses to its nearest ally. The ears are long ; the nose 

 is grooved ; and the palms and soles are naked. 



The Kinkajou, Cercoleptes, is likewise an American Arctoid. 

 It ranges from Central Mexico down to the Eio Negro in Brazil. 

 It was at one time confounded, and, considering its external 

 appearance, not unnaturally, with the Lemurs. Sir E. Owen 

 dispelled this view by a careful dissection of the creature. Never- 

 theless, there are certain anatomical features in which it differs 



1 Beddard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1898, p. 129. 



