198 MARSUPIALIA. 
Rica, whence there are specimens, collected by Hoffmann and Frantzius, in the Museums 
of Berlin and Washington. Within this range it has been recorded from Paraguay, 
Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador ; and, as already noticed, it occurs in Colombia. In 
Guiana it appears to be replaced by the nearly allied but much darker D. crancrivora, 
Gmelin. 
Dr. v. Frantzius gives the following amusing account of the habits of Azara’s Opossum 
in Costa Rica :— 
“The first of all the Mammals of Costa Rica with which the newly arrived foreigner 
has an opportunity of making a near if not an agreeable acquaintance is the Long-eared 
Opossum. In the towns there are few houses that are not infested by these hideous 
beasts. Often strangers are roused from their slumbers by an unwonted sound, which 
is really caused by these brutes running with heavy tread over the thin boarding of the 
roof of the room, or by their upsetting dishes, plates, and other household utensils during 
a visit to the larder or the kitchen; and the said stranger often fancies that a burglary is 
being attempted, springs from his bed and grasps his weapons. But if he makes inquiries 
next day as to the cause of the alarm, he receives one answer, ‘Sefor, es el Zorro.’ 
Zorro means properly a Fox in Spanish; but the colonists gave the name to the Opossum 
because it works the same mischief amongst poultry in Costa Rica as the Fox does in 
Europe, though it cannot compare with the latter in respect to quickness and cunning. 
Owing to this heaviness and stupidity it easily falls into the hands of its pursuer. It is 
no unusual thing in Costa Rica to find a newly killed Opossum lying on the street or 
road, where its flesh is soon devoured by the Vultures. In this way I had no difficulty 
in collecting a large number of skins and skulls. In the latter I could find no differences 
after a close comparison. But in the skins I found many variations in the colour of 
the fur, especially in the long coarse projecting hairs, which in some specimens were 
white and in others black ; in some there were but few bristly hairs, while in others 
they stood very thick ; in fact,as Hensel has shown (Zool. Gart. 1867, p. 290), coloration 
will not serve here as a specific character. 
“In Costa Rica I have never seen Opossums in the open; generally they live beneath 
the roofs of the houses; and although so many are killed, they are not uncommon. 
Perhaps their numbers would be diminished if their flesh were considered to be edible; 
hitherto the ugliness of the brutes seems to have prevented the inhabitants of Costa 
Rica from preparing them for the table, as is done in Guatemala, where they are even 
regarded as a delicacy ” 7. 
3. Didelphys quica. 
Didelphys quica, Natterer, apud Temminck, Monogr. de Mamm. i. p. 36 (1827, descr. orig.)’; Gray, 
P.Z.S8. 1843, p. 79°; Tomes, P. Z. 8. 1861, p. 287°; Frantzius, Arch. f. Naturg. xxxv. 1, 
p. 817%. 
Tlacuazin of Guatemalans. 
