THE PERAMELES NASUTA. 
19^ 
verse markings, like scales ; between which the hairs shoot 
up, as has been observed in some other quadrupeds. 
The most remarkable external character of this animal 
is the marsupium, or abdominal pouch, for the reception of 
the premature young, and for the lodgment of the mammae. 
This sac does not open from above downwards in the Pe- 
rameles, as it does in most other marsupial animals ; but 
commences almost imperceptibly at a short distance from 
the anuS; about half an inch from the orifice of the vagina, 
and extends upwards, under a thick fold of the skin, to the 
point of the sternum. This remarkable form of the sac, 
which appears not to have been noticed in other marsu- 
pial animals, greatly favours the opinion of those who 
have conceived that the young are deposited in the sac 
by the protruded vagina:. The entrance of this inverted 
sac is arched upwards, and is quite open for more than an 
inch from its lower, or anal^ margin. The whole cavity is 
lined with soft, short, white, woolly hair, and its parietes 
are remarkably soft and dilatable. Tiie two supplementary 
or marsupial bones, 11 lines in length, about 1 in breadth, 
and not half a line thick, are connected, as usual, with the 
recti and pyramidal muscles of the abdomen, and have no 
immediate connexion with the fold of integuments which 
forms the marsupium. The number of mammse varies 
considerably in marsupial animals. There are eight nipples 
in the pouch of the Perameles, placed in two longitudinal 
rows ; the upper and lower pairs of which are closer toge- 
ther than the middle pair ; the two upper nipples of the 
left row, and the second upper one on the right side, were 
more than double the size of the rest, which would lead us 
to infer that there were three young in the sac when the 
animal was taken, as the nipple enlarges during lactation, 
as well as the foetus which chngs to it. The nipples liad 
the usual conical form, and round, smooth apex, imperfo- 
VOL. VI. N 
