449 
and capable of moving easily on each other ; the fibula Separate fi 0111 
the tibia, having a thin and enlarged head ; the triangle of the scapula 
nearly similar ; — in a word, nothing which appeared in this skeleton 
manifested any important difference between it and that of the sarigue, 
and especially of didelphis murina, with which, it being of the same 
size, it was carefully compared. 
The animals with a pouch, different from all other animals, have 
two long and flat bones, which articulate with the anterior edge of 
the pubis, and serve to support the edges of the pouch. M. Cuvier, 
therefore, dissected the stone with a point of a needle, and was thereby 
enabled to prove the existence of these supernumerary or marsupial 
bones in the fossil, and to determine that they agreed with the analo- 
gous bones in the sarigue. 
The tapir is the only known American animal hitherto found fossil 
in Europe, M. Cuvier was anxious, therefore, to determine whether 
the sarigue might or not be considered as the second : believing that, 
of the genera of animals belonging to Austral Asia, none had been 
discovered fossil in Europe. 
The sarigues, properly so called, with a scaly prehensile tail, ten 
incisors above, eight below, and large canine teeth, with the great 
toes of the hind feet detached and without a c’aw, are the animals of 
this genus which M. Cuvier considers as the American marsupial ani- 
mals ; and whilst Austral Asia produces all the rest of these animals, 
these, the sarigues, are produced in America alone. His task he con- 
sidered, therefore, as only half performed, until he could detei mine 
whether these remains belonged to a sarigue or a dasyure. 
He found that the dasyure has four toes nearly equal, the large one 
being so short that the skin almost hides it, it appearing only like a 
tubercle ; but in the sarigue this toe is long and well marked, the other 
toes being unequal ; the little toe, and particularly its metacarpal bone, 
being shorter than the others. By carefully exploring the stone, he 
found the fourth and fifth metatarsal bones, and ascertained that the 
3 M 
VOL. III. 
