MARSUPIALIA. 125 



black which marks the muzzle and nearly the whole of the 

 ears; the tail is also longer. 



Did. marsupialis, and Did. cancrivora, L. ; Buff, Supp. III,liv. 

 (The Crab-eating Opossum.) Size of the preceding ; yellowish, 

 mixed with brown, with brown hairs ; a brown streak on the 

 chanfrin. It frequents the marshes of the sea coast, where it 

 feeds chiefly on Crabs. (1) 



Did. opossum, h.; Buff. X, xlv, xlvi. (The Four-eyed Opos- 

 sum.) Chesnut above, white below, a white or pale yellow spot 

 over each eye ; posterior third of the tail white; larger than a 

 large Rat. 

 Other species possess no pouch, having a mere vestige of it in a 

 fold of the skin on each side of the abdomen. They usually carry 

 their young on their backs, the tails of the latter being entwined 

 around that of the mother. 



Did.niidicauda, Geoff.; D. myosuros,Temm. (The Bare-tailed 

 Opossum.) Fawn coloured; tail very long, and naked even at 

 its base; two whitish spots over each eye, one beneath. 



Did. cayopollin,(2) Did. philander, and Did. dorsigera, L. ; 

 Buff. X, Iv. (The Cayopollin. ) A greyish fawn colour ^ the 

 circumference of the eyes and a longitudinal band on the chan- 

 frin brown ; tail marked with black ; size that of the Norway 

 Rat. The superior third of the tail furnished with hairs. 



Did. cinerea, Temm. (The Cinereous Didelphis.) A 

 light ash colour, with blackish reflections ; some red on the 

 breast ; the posterior half of the tail white ; of the same size as 

 the preceding. From Brazil. 



Did. murina,!^.; Buff. X, lii, liii. (The Marmose.)(3) Fawn 

 coloured grey ; a brown stripe, in the middle of which is the 

 eye; tail immaculate; less than a Rat. 



(1) It is the pretended Ch-eat Oriental Fliilander of Seba of which Linnaeus has 

 made his Did. marsupialis. Buffon, who has described tlie male, Supp. Ill, pi. 

 liii, erroneously thought the female had no pouch, which was the cause of the 

 improper establishment of a second species, Did. cancrivora, Gm., carcinophaga, 

 Bodd. The Crab-eater is called at Cayenne plan, ovpuant. 



(2) Cayopollin, the name of a species that inhabits the mountains of Mexico; it 

 has, somewhat arbitrarily, been applied to this species in particular. \ 



(3) Marmose, a name adopted by Buffon from a typographical error in the French 

 translation of Seba, who assures us in the text that it is called Marmot in Brazil. 

 The truth is, that the Dutch, in the time of Marcg-rave, calledit Wood-Rat, and the 

 Brazilians Taibi; jRa<-(Ze-6ois is also its name among the Fi-ench at Cayenne. Seba 

 must have rendered Bosch-ratte by Marmot. 



N.B. There has been found, in the plaster quarries near Paris, the fossil skele- 

 ton of a Didelphis allied to the Marmose. 



