124 MAMMALIA. 



vorous Carnaria ; the animals that compose it are also perfectly 

 similar to the latter in their regimen. 



DiDELPHiSj Lin. 



The Opossums,(l) which of all the Marsupialia have been the longest 

 known, form a genus peculiar to America. They have ten incisors 

 above, the middle ones being rather the longest, and eight below; 

 three anterior compressed grinders and four posterior bristled 

 grinders, the superior ones triangular, and the inferior oblong, 

 which, with the four canini, make in all fifty teeth, the greatest num- 

 ber hitherto observed in Quadrupeds. Their tongue is papillated, 

 and their tail prehensile and partly naked. Their hinder thumb is 

 long and very opposable to the oth^' four toes, from which circuth- 

 stance these animals are sometimes styled Pedimana; they have no 

 nail. Their extremely wide mouth, and great naked ears give them a 

 very peculiar physiognomy. The glans penis is bifurcated. They 

 are fetid and nocturnal animals, whose gait is slow; they remain on 

 trees, and there pursue Birds, Insects, &c. , though not despising 

 fruit. Their stomach is simple and small, their caecum of a mid- 

 dling size and without any enlargements. 



The females of certain species have a deep pouch in which are the 

 mammse, and in which they can enclose their young. 



Did. virginiana, Penn. Hist. Quadr. 302.(2) (The Opos- 

 sum.) Almost the size of a Cat ; fur, a mixture of black and 

 white ; ears, one side black, and the other white ; head nearly all 

 white. Inhabits all America; steals at night into villages; at- 

 tacks fowls, eats their eggs. Sec. The young ones at birth, 

 sometimes sixteen in number, weigh only a grain each. Al- 

 though blind and nearly shapeless, they find the mammae by 

 instinct, and adhere to them until they have attained the size 

 of a Mouse, which happens about the fiftieth day, at which 

 epoch they open their eyes. They continue to return to the 

 pouch till they are as large as Rats. The term of gestation in 

 the uterus is but twenty-six days.(3) 



Did. Azzarx, Temm. (The Gamba, or the Great Opossum 

 of Paraguay and Brazil.) Differs from the preceding in the 



(1) Carigueia, according' to Marcgrave, is their Brazilian name, whence we have 

 Sariguoi, Cerigon, Sarigue. They are called Micoure in Parag'uay; Manicou in the 

 islands ; Opossum in the United States; Thlaquaizin'm Mexico. 



(2) It is the Sarigue des. Illinois, and the Sarigue ci longs poib ; Buff. Supp. VII, 

 p. xxxiii and xxxiv ; Did. marsupialis, Schreb. pi. cxlv. 



(3) See the letter of Dr B. S. Barton to M. Uoume on the gestation of the Opos- 

 sum. 



