PHASCOGALE PENICILLATA. 267 



appearance of the martin cat, but hardly so long in the body in pro- 

 portion to its size. The head is flat forwards, and broad from side to 

 side, especially between the eyes and ears : the nose is peaked, and 

 projects beyond the teeth, which makes the upper jaw appear to be 

 considerably longer than the lower : the eyes are pretty large ; the ears 

 are broad, especially at their base, not becoming regularly narrower to 

 a point nor with a very smooth edge ; having a small process on the 

 concave or inner surface near to their base. 



It has long whiskers from the sides of the cheeks, which begin for- 

 wards, near the nose, by small and short hairs, and become longer and 

 stronger as they arise nearer to the eyes. It has very much the hair 

 of a rat ; to which it is similar in colour ; but near to the setting on of 

 the tail the hair is of *a lighter brown, forming a broad ring round it. 



The fore limbs are shorter than the hind, much in the same propor- 

 tion as in the rat ; but the hind limbs are more flexible. There are 

 five toes to the fore-feet ; the middle one is the longest ; the others 

 falling off on each side nearly equally, but the innermost toe is rather 

 the shortest. They are thin from side to side : the nails are pretty 

 broad laterally, thin at the base, not very long, but sharp. The 

 animal walks on its whole palm, on which there is no hair. The hind- 

 feet are pretty long, and have five toes : what answers to our great toe 

 is very short and has no nail ; the next is the longest of all, the rest 

 falling off gradually to the outer toe. The shape of the hind-toes is the 

 same as in the fore-feet, as also the nails : it walks nearly on the whole 

 foot or sole. The tail is long and covered with long hair, but not all 

 of the same colour. 



The teeth of this animal are somewhat peculiar ; different from any 

 yet known : the mouth is full of teeth. The lower jaw is narrow in 

 comparison to the upper, more especially backwards, which allows of 

 much broader grinders in the upper jaw, where they project consider- 

 ably over those in the lower : the cuspidati [premolars] oppose one 

 another : the upper piercers, or holders, go behind those of the lower : 

 the second class of incisors in the lower jaw overlap those of the 

 upper, while the two first in the lower go within or behind those of the 

 upper. In this jaw, before the holders, there are four teeth on each 

 side [incisors], three of which are pointed ; the point standing on the 

 inner surface, and the two front ones are longer than the two behind, 

 stand more obliquely forwards, and appear to be appropriated to a par- 

 ticular use. The holders [canines] are a little way behind the last fore- 

 teeth : to allow those of the lower jaw to come between ; they are pretty 

 long ; the cuspidati on each side become longer and larger towards the 

 grinders : they are points or cones placed on a pretty broad base. There 



