258 MARSUPIALIA. 



is no nail, being formed into a thumb, opposing the whole foot. The 

 sole or palm is bare : the nails of all the other toes, both of the fore- 

 and hind-feet, resemble in a small degree those of the eat ; being broad 

 [i. e. deep, compressed] and curved, and the last bone of the toe having 

 a projection on the under side at the articulation : each nail has, in 

 some degree, a small sheath covering its base when it is drawn up 1 . 

 The tail is long, covered with pretty long hair, except along the under 

 surface for about half-way to the termination or end. This uncovered 

 part forms a line about a quarter of an inch in breadth, but broadest 

 nearest the point where it most commonly holds. This surface is only 

 covered by a pretty firm skin. 



The teeth have a resemblance to all those of [the quadrupeds of] 

 this island I have yet seen : the incisors are not continued into the 

 grinders by intermediate teeth, although there are two in the interspace 

 in the upper jaw, and one in that in the lower. There are six incisors 

 in the upper jaw very similar to those in the kangaroo, opposed by two 

 in the lower jaw ; but it is by an oblique surface extending some way 

 from the termination, which lengthens the opposing surface. There 

 are two cuspidati on each side in the upper jaw, and only one in the 

 lower. On each side are five grinders, the first rather pointed, the other 

 four much of a size, and quadrangular, with a hollow running across 

 from the outside to the inner, which is pretty deep, and another crossing 

 this, but not so deep, dividing the grinding surface into four points 2 . 



The oesophagus, as soon as it gets through the diaphragm, opens into 

 the stomach, not a great distance from the left, or what is called the 

 great end. The stomach lies almost directly across the abdomen ; and 

 appears to be nearly as large at the right end as at the left, from the 

 pylorus not being directly at that end, but on the upper part of the end. 



The duodenum passes pretty far down the right side, on the right of 

 the root of the mesentery, to which it adheres for some way ; then makes 

 a bend up upon itself behind the mesentery, and gets on the left of the 

 root of the mesentery, as it were, enclosing it : then gets on the left 

 edge of that membrane, and becomes a loose intestine, forming jejunum. 

 The jejunum and ileum pass down the left, and across the abdomen, 

 obliquely towards the right loin, where the latter enters the colon. The 

 ca?cum is long and loose 3 , having a broad mesocaecum, which is con- 



1 [In the hind-foot the two toes next the thumb are enclosed in a common sheath 

 of integument, from which the two claws project, as in the petaurus, p. 256.] 



2 [See ' White's Journal,' &c. 1790, p. 278 : and, for the dental formula and 

 homologies of Phalangista, my 'Odontography,' p. 382, pi. 100, figs. 1, 2, 3.] 



3 [See remarks on the caecum and its relations to food, in the art. " Marsupialia," 

 torn. cit. p. 302.] 



