THE PERAMELES NASUTA. 
nal muscular bands ; their coats were smooth and uniform, 
and had no perceptible villi. This portion of the intestine 
was about an inch in diameter, had a distinct meso-colon 
to near the anus, and was supplied with numerous branches 
of the mesenteric artery, which, in this animal, was single, 
as in other marsupial animals. In order to discover the 
kind of food which had been last taken by the Perameles, 
I collected the feculent matter from the whole of the large 
intestine. It had a black and granular appearance, mixed 
with some hair, vegetable fibres, and an immense number 
of black, shining scales. It was of a thick consistence, and 
was not divided into portions, as it is generally in animals 
which have plicae in their colon. On mixing a portion of 
it in water, the whole surface of the water became instant- 
ly covered with the black shining scales, which rose by 
their specific lightness to the surface of the fluid. The 
bottom of the vessel I found to be covered with a thick 
layer of very fine sand, of a light grey colour, together 
with some tufts of fine woolly hair, and some flat vegetable 
fibres, like partially digested straw. The black floating 
scales, when examined through a lens, appeared obviously 
to be the elytra^ or outer horny coverings of the wings, of 
beetles, and other coleopterous insects ; and, on examining 
with more care, I collected elytra^ abdominal rings, entire 
legs and wings of coleopterous, neuropterous, and other 
orders of insects. Some very small insects, apparently 
young ants, had likewise passed thus far through the in- 
testinal canal, without suff^ering much injury to their ex- 
ternal form, although their soft substance had been ex- 
tracted from their interior. The greater part of the fecu- 
lent matter was distinctly composed of the horny and indi- 
gestible parts of insects, and probably the fine hair with 
which they were mixed, belonged to the same animals ei- 
