SALOON, j 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
15 
under the general name of kangaroo, have very large hinder limbs, 
which enable them to leap, and have an elongated strong tail; some 
which graze have a hairy muzzle like sheep, as the kangaroo ( Macro¬ 
pus ), which has a very large and strong tail, and the kangaroo-hare 
(Lagorchestes ), which has a slender tail covered with longish hair. 
The rest have a bald muffle, as the Halmaturi , with a conical hairy 
tail. The Osphranter differs from the latter in having a very large 
muzzle, swollen on the sides, and the index toes much more dilated 
than the rest. The rock kangaroos ( Petrogale ) have a more cylin¬ 
drical tail, covered with longer hair. The bettongs ( Bettongia ) differ 
from the latter in being smaller and having a more slender tail, with 
which they carry the grass which they collect for forming their bed; 
and the kangaroo-rat ( Hypsiprymnus ) has a naked scaly tail like a rat. 
The two last genera have distinct canines. The wombat ( Phascolomys ) 
has many characters of the kangaroos, but it has only two cutting teeth 
in each jaw, no tail, and its legs are nearly equal and very short. It 
lives in holes in the ground. 
The remaining groups of this family have equal cutting teeth and 
acutely tubercular grinders, like the civets, with which they were formerly 
confounded, but they have eight or ten cutting teeth in each jaw. They 
live on carrion and the animals they overpower. Those which are found 
in Australia ( Case 30) have eight cutting teeth in the lower jaw, and eight 
or ten in the upper, as the bandicoots ( Perameles ), which have the feet, 
and much the appearance of small kangaroos, but their tail is short and 
slender. The Perigalece only differ from them in the tail being tufted 
and the ears large, and the Chceropus chiefly differs from the bandicoots 
in only having three toes on the front feet, two large and nearly equal, 
like the foot of a pig, and the other very small, and hidden under the fur 
on the outside of the wrist. The Dasyurina have feet like dogs, and 
only eight cutting teeth in the upper jaw, as the zebra-wolf ( Paracyon ), 
the devil ( Diabolus ), the Dasyurus , the Pkascogale, and the Myr- 
mecobius. The opossums, ( Didelphis , Case 31,) which are confined to 
the warmer parts of America, have eight cutting teeth below and ten 
above, and the end of their tail is naked, scaly, and prehensile; the 
opossums and philanders have their toes free. The yapoc ( Chiro - 
nectes ), on the contrary, has them webbed like an otter. 
The family of Seals ( Phocid^:, Case 31) are at once known from the 
other rapacious beasts by their limbs being short and nearly in the form 
of fins; their neck is very short, so that the head appears united to the 
body ; the nostrils are operculated; they have four or six cutting teeth 
above, and two or four below. One group of these animals have their 
grinders divided into roots at the base, like other ferocious beasts ; they 
have the soles of their feet hairy, and simple toes armed with sharp 
claws. They are destitute of any ears, as the genera Leptonyx , Pela¬ 
gias., and Stenorhynchus , which have four cutting teeth in each jaw, 
and the true seals (P/ioca), which have eight cutting teeth in the upper 
and four in the lower jaw; the latter are the most carnivorous of the 
kind. 
The remainder of the animals of this family have the grinders simple 
at the base. Some of these, like the preceding, have hairy soles to 
their feet, and simple clawed toes, as the Halichcerus and the morse 
( Trichecus ), which have a simple truncated muzzle, very large canine 
