This specimen is a male. The fur is long, but close and thick; of a mixed brown or greyish colour on the back, under the belly and neck, of a yellowish white. Its length is about eighteen inches, exclusive of the tail, which is twelve inches long, and prehensile. The face is three inches in length, broad above and very pointed at the muzzle, which is furnished with long whiskers. The eyes are very large, but not fierce. On the fore feet are five claws; on the hind, three and a thumb. The teeth are two in the front of the upper jaw, and two in the lower; the upper projecting beyond the under. In the Kanguroo it is remarkable that there are four teeth in the upper jaw, opposed to two in the under. The testicles are contained in a pendulous scrotum, between the two thighs of the hind legs, as in the common opossum. The affinity of almost all the quadrupeds yet discovered on this coast to the opossum kind, in the circumstance of the pouch in which the female receives and suckles her young, seems to open a field of investigation most interesting to the naturalist: and the public will doubtless learn with pleasure, that it is the intention of the most able comparative anatomist of the age, to give a paper on this subject to the Royal Society. It cannot, therefore, be necessary at present to pursue the enquiry any farther.
THE VULPINE OPOSSUM.
This is not unlike the common fox in shape, but considerably inferior to it in respect to size, being, from the point of the nose to the setting on of the tail, only twenty-six inches; the tail itself fifteen inches: the upper parts of the body are of a grisly colour, arising from a mixture of dusky and white hairs, with rufous-yellow tinge; the head and shoulders partaking most of this last colour: round the eyes blackish: above the nostrils ten or twelve black whiskers, four inches or more in length: all the under parts of the body are of a tawny buff-colour, deepest on the throat, where the bottom of the hairs are rust-colour: the tail is of the colour of the back for about one quarter of its length, from thence to the end, black: the toes on the fore feet are five in number, the inner one placed high up: on the hind feet four toes only: with a thumb, consisting of two joints, without a claw, placed high up at the base of the inner toe. The whole foot serving the purpose of a hand, as observable in many of the opossum genus. The legs are much shorter in proportion than those of the common fox: the ears about one inch and an half in length: in the upper jaw are six cutting teeth, and four grinders, with two small canine teeth placed at an equal distance between them: in the under jaw two long cutting teeth, not unlike those of a squirrel, and four grinders to answer those in the upper jaw, but no canine teeth.--A representation of the mouth and teeth may be seen in one of the following plates.
Vulpine Opossum
NORFOLK ISLAND FLYING SQUIRREL.
Size of the American grey squirrel, and the general colour of the upper parts very nearly resembling that animal; the under parts white: from the nose to the tail runs a streak of dusky black, and another springs on each side of the head behind the nostrils, passing over the eyes and finishing behind them: ears not rising from the head: on each side of the body is a broad flap or membrane, as in other flying squirrels, which is united to both the fore and hind legs, as usual in many of this division: this membrane is black, fringed on the outer edge with white: the tail for two-thirds of the length, is of an elegant ash colour, paler than the body, from thence to the end dusky black: the toes on the fore legs are five in number; those of the hinder uncertain, as the legs behind were wanting: length from head to rump nine inches; the tail is ten inches.
