DASYURUS FAMILY. 
393 
vegetable substances; and the author just mentioned states 
that it forms a nest, composed of leaves, &c.; in these respects 
resembling the species of Perameles . 
DASYUKEDiE, or Dasyurus Family. 
Dasyuridce . Waterhouse, Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol. ii. 
Pt. 2, p. 149.—Naturalists' Library, vol. xi. 
Dasijurina. Gray, Annals of Philosphy, xxvi. 1825. 
Marsupialia having the second and third toes of the hind foot 
disunited, and well developed; the thumb, or first toe, small, 
or absent; the tail lion-prehensile, and hairy ; eight incisors 
in the upper jaw, and six in the lower; the canine teeth 
well developed; the molar teeth either with trenchant 
crowns, or with the masticating surface presenting numerous 
prickly points. Stomach simple: no ccecum marking the 
division of the large and small intestines. 
With respect to the above, which are the chief distinguish¬ 
ing characters of a group of Marsupial animals whose diet 
is either carnivorous or insectivorous, it is necessary to 
observe, that the Myrmecobius has yet to be dissected ; hence 
we are not sure that the coecum is abseut in that animal. 
Several fossil species of this family have been found in 
Australia, to which continent the recent species are also 
confined—with one exception only, the Phascogale me las, 
which is a native of New Guinea. 
