URSINE TREE-KANGAROO. 
185 
Two species of this section are known, both ot which 
inhabit New Guinea, and aro said to ascend the trees, for 
which habit their strong lore legs, added to the curved and 
powerful claws, are adapted. 
The Phalinnjistid(C in their skull and dentition approach 
the Kangaroo group in such a manner, that one would bo 
inclined to regard the two families as furnishing arboreal and 
ground types of a large natural division, and to suppose, in 
fact, that the Fhalaugers might, without impropriety, be 
looked upon as tree Kangaroos ; it is interesting, however, to 
observe that in the Dendrolagus section we have examples of 
species which, although their extremities are modified to 
enable them to ascend trees in quest of their food, are strictly 
conformable to the Kangaroo type in all essential parts of 
their structure, and do not evince any very direct affinity to the 
Phalanf/istidiC —any such approach, in fact, as would lead us to 
regard them as a link between the Phalangers and Kangaroos; 
it is, indeed, in certain species of the Hyjmprymnu* group, 
that we find the nearest approximation to the Phalantfixtid#, 
in die structure of the skull and teeth, nnd even in the 
possession of a prehensile power in the tail. 
DENDROLAGUS URSINUS. Ursine Tree-Kangaroo. 
{Plate 1.) 
Dendrolagu* ursinu*. Muller, Zoogdieren dcr Indischen Archipcl. Pt. 4, 
Plate 19; head, PI. 22, fig. 1 ; skull, PI. 23, fig. 1—3, 
and PI. 24, fig. 1 ; bones of hind legs, figs. 2 and 3. 
“ 14 Gould, Monograph of the Macropodidce, Pt. 2» 
Plate 11. 
Head conical; ears short; fur loug, coarse, and glossy black: the 
hairs of the neck directed forwards, and meeting those of the 
head, which have the usual direction, form a transverse crest 
