PERAMELES FAMILY. 
855 
principal parts which have been visited, up to the north coast. 
One species (the Perameles Doreyanus) has been discovered 
in New Guinea. 
In the structure of the hind feet, the PeramelhUc greatly 
resemble the Kangaroos, as will bo seen upon comparing 
fig. 5 (right-hand figure) with fig. 6 (lower figure) of Plate 
12. The Perameles > foot (fig. 5) here represented, however, 
is proportionately shorter, and the fourth, or principal toe, is 
less developed than in the Kangaroo’s foot; such a distinction 
is general in the two groups : the PeramelicLv , indeed, have 
the fore and hind limbs less unequal than the Kangaroos, 
and I strougly suspect they do not progress by leaps like the 
species of the section last mentioned. Another difference 
observable in the two feet represented on the plate, consists 
in die presence of a small inner toe to the foot of the Pera¬ 
meles ; but this, I must observe, is not a constant difference, 
tho toe in question being absent in some of the Peramelidw , 
as, for instance, in the Perameles la go tin , where the tarsus 
is proportionately longer than in most others of the group. 
We shall have to notice a singular modification of the feet in 
another species of the present family— the Cheer opus. The 
fore feet differ from those of the Kangaroos in having the 
outer toes rudimentary. In the structure of the skull and 
teeth there exists much difference in the species of the two 
sections. The Peramelida ? may be readily distinguished from 
all other Marsupials by the number of their incisor teeth, of 
which there are ten in the upper, and six in the lower jaw. 
In no other Australian mammal are there more than eight 
incisors in the upper jaw : ten of these teeth are found in the 
Marsupials of America (the true Opossums), but those animals 
have eight incisors in the lower jaw. The true molar teeth 
in the animals under consideration are adapted to insect diet, 
and such we know to be the food of these animals, though, 
according to the accounts of good observers residing in 
