394 
Genus, Myrmecobius *. 
Myrmccobiu*. Wateriiousk, Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 
July, 1836.—Transactions of the Zoological Society, 
vol. ii. Pt. 2, p. 149. 
Teeth small and detached : incisors, ; canines, ; molars, 
^ = 52. The molar teeth provided with prickly points. 
/1 fad somewhat depressed above; the muzzle moderately elongated; 
muffle naked; nostrils lateral : cars of moderate size, and 
pointed : tongue very long and slender : bony palate very 
long, and destitute of the ordinary large palatine openings. 
Legs rather short and strong; fore feet naked beneath; provided 
with live toes, having compressed and curved claws: hind 
feet naked beneath, in front, and along the mesial line 
behind ; provided with four toes having compressed and 
curved nails. 
Tail long and bushy. 
The female destitute of pouch, and having, apparently, eight 
mamma;, arranged in a circle. 
The only known species of the genus Myrmecobius is 
found on the west coast of Australia, chiefly in the Swan 
River district, but 1ms likewise been mot with os for 
southwards as the Murray Scrubs. One of its most re¬ 
markable peculiarities consists in the great number of its 
teeth, these being at the same time, many of them, of 
complicated structure 1 2 . The incisor teeth are arranged 
1 From fivpfijjl, nnt; nnd /3<or, life. 
2 In the Porpoises and Armadillos the teeth arc often very numerous, but in 
these animals they are of n very simple form, and cannot by any difference of 
structure be divided into canities, false and true molars, See. It has appeared 
to me probable that the simple teeth in question represent parts only of the 
more complicated teeth of other mammals. 
