MEXICAN WEASEL. 
359 
same prehensile faculty with that of the sapajous. 
The body measures nineteen inches, the tail seven- 
teen. 
There was one shewn some years ago in London. 
Its keeper said it came from the mountains of 
Jamaica, and called it a potto, the name given 
by some writers to a species of sloth found in 
Guinea. 
It was very good-natured and sportive, and 
would catch hold of any thing, and suspend itself 
by its tail. It lay with its head under its legs and 
bellv. 
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i 
Mexican weasel, or kinkajou. 
The Mexican weasel has a short dusky nose, a 
tongue of vast length, and small eyes, encircled 
with a dusky colour ; its ears are short, rounded, 
and placed very distant from each other ; its hair 
is short. On the head, the upper part of the body, 
and the tail, the colours arc yellow, grey, and 
black intermixed ; the throat and inside of the 
legs of a lively yellow ; the belly is of a dirty 
white, tinged with yellow ; its toes are separated ; 
the claws crooked, white, and guttered beneath. 
This animal is about two feet four inches long ; 
its tail near one foot three. The tail is taper, 
covered with hair, except beneath, near the end, 
where it is naked, and of a fine flesh colour, It is 
extremely like the former, but larger in all its parts. 
Like the former, it has a prehensile tail, and is 
naturally very good-natured. It goes to sleep at 
the approach of day, wakes towards night, and 
becomes very lively. It makes use of its feet to 
catch, any thing, and has many of the actions of 
a monkey. It eats like a squirrel, holding its 
food in its hands. It has a variety of cries during 
the night ; one like the low barking of a dog ; iU 
