Three or four of the species are well made out, but with regard to the rest there is still some doubt.
1. P. nasuta (Geoff. St. Hilaire), the Long-Nosed Bandicoot, measures about a foot and a half in length from the extremity of the muzzle to the origin of the tail ; the head is 4 inches long, the tail 6 inches, the hind legs also 6 inches, and the fore legs only 3 inches. The ears are erect, pointed, and covered with short hair ; the eyes are particularly small ; the nose remarkably long, pointed, and naked at the extremity; and the tail attenuated, and, though better covered with hair, bearing aome resemblance to that of a large rat. This organ is not used by the Bandicoot to support the body in a sitting posture, like that of the kangaroo, as has been imagined by M. Geeffroy St. Hilaire, to whom we owe the first description of this species as well as the establishment of the present genus ; neither are the pro gressive movements of these animals similar to those of the kangaroos, as the same eminent zoologist conceived, from the form and propor tions of the extremities, that they might be. The pace of the Bandicoot as already observed resembles that of our hares and rabbits, which certainly approximates more nearly to the saltigrade pace of the kangaroos, gerboas, and helamys, than any other kind of locomotion ivith which we are acquainted. So far M. Geeffroy's conjecture was well founded, and he has certainly good reason iu his ebscrvation that analogous structures rarely deceive us in reasoning upon their functions. The external coat of the Long-Nosed Bandicoot is composed of coarse bristly hair, in colour very nearly resembling that of the common Rat (Mus deeumanus), except that it is of a more sandy shade on the upper parts of the body, and of a more clear silvery white beneath ; under this long outer hair there is an interior coat of soft ash-coloured wool or fur, which protects the animal from the cold and variations of temperature, for it appears to be an inhabi tant of the mountainous parts of Australia, principally if not exclusively. The tail is of a rather darker colour than the body, and
the whole animal, except in the great length and pointed form of the nose, has much the appearance of an overgrown rat. The form and characters of its teeth would lead us to suppose that it fed upon insects and other similar animal substances. In the neighbourhood of human habitations they frequently enter into the granaries, and do as much mischief to the corn as the rats and mice of our own country.
2. P. obesula (Geoff.), the Blunt-Nosed Bandicoot, first described by Dr. Shaw under the names of the Porcupine Opossum and Didelphys obesula, is readily distinguished from the last species by the shortness and bluntness of its snout, and by the bread round form of its ears. The arrangement of the teeth also differs in some degree from that of the Long-Nosed Bandicoot. The external incisors are more nearly in contact with the canines and central incisors on each side of them ; the molars immediately succeeding the canines, and answering to the false molars of the carnivore, are contiguous to one another and of a triangular form ; and the posterior molars are more flattened on the crowns. This latter character would seem to intimate that the present species was more purely herbivorous than the last, and future observation may probably confirm this conjecture. The colour and quality of the hair and fur are the same as in the Long-Nosed Bandicoot.
3. P. Gunnii is a native of Van Diemen's Laud, where it is very generally diffused. It lives principally on bulbs, but also eats insects. P. lagotis, of Reid, is of a gray colour, and as large as an opossum. It has been described by Professor Owen under the generic name Phodacemys. [MA RSU PIA TA]