﻿THE OPOSSUMS. 215 



are easily caught in trap?, baited with either cheese or meat. The 

 tail appeared to be scarcely at all used as a prehensile organ ; 

 they are able to run up trees with some degree of facility. I 

 could distinguish in their stomachs the larvse of beetles." 



XV. YELLOW-FLANKED OPOSSUM. DIDELPHYS DIMIDL^TA 



Dide/phys dimidiata^y^a.gne.Y, Abhandl. Akad. Miinchen, vol. v. 



p. 151 (1847); Thomas, Cat. Marsup. Brit. Mus. p. 355 



(1888). 

 Microdelphys brachyura^ Burmeister, Erlaut. Faun. Brasil., p. 



86 (1856). 



Characters. — The present, together with the nine remaining 

 representatives of the True Opossums, constitute the sub-genus 

 J^erajnySj characterised as follows : — 



Size small ; tail short, generally equal to about half the 

 length of the head and body, more or less covered with short, 

 fine hairs, and but slightly, if at all, prehensile ; fifth hind toe 

 considerably shorter than the second ; third and fourth sub- 

 equal, and only slightly exceeding the second in length. 



Were it not that these small species are approached by the 

 Velvety Opossum in the shortness of the tail, they might, 

 writes Mr. Thomas, be regarded as representing a distinct 

 genus, in spite of the circumstance that they show no ab- 

 solutely distinctive peculiarities either in the skull or the 

 teeth. Although their habits have never been properly de- 

 scribed, it appears — as may be inferred from the lack of pre- 

 hensile power in the tail — that they are far less arboreal than 

 the other members of the genus. On this account, as already 

 mentioned, they may be regarded as occupying in South 

 America the place in nature elsewhere filled by the Shrews. 



The present species, which was described by Waterhouse 

 under the name of D. brachytira, a name previously used by 



