being nocturnal and mainly arboreal in habit. There are apparently three species, of which B. astutus is the best known, having been on several occasions exhibited at the Zoological Society's Gardens, the last examples so lately as 1900. The animal was for a long time believed to be allied to the Oriental Paradoxures, and its occurrence in America was therefore puzzling. The real affinities of the creature were, however, definitely set at rest by Sir W. Flower, and later accounts of its anatomy have confirmed this opinion.[1] The vertebrae are more numerous than in Procyon, and the teeth are slightly different; otherwise it presents many likenesses to its nearest ally. The ears are long; the nose is grooved; and the palms and soles are naked.
Fig. 215.—Cunning Bassarisc. Bassariscus astutus. × 1⁄5. (From Nature.)
The Kinkajou, Cercoleptes, is likewise an American Arctoid. It ranges from Central Mexico down to the Rio Negro in Brazil. It was at one time confounded, and, considering its external appearance, not unnaturally, with the Lemurs. Sir R. Owen dispelled this view by a careful dissection of the creature. Nevertheless, there are certain anatomical features in which it differs
- ↑ Beddard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1898, p. 129.
