THE OPOSSUMS, 215 
| are easily caught in traps, 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 larvee of beetles.” 
XV. YELLOW-FLANKED OPOSSUM. DIDELPHYS DIMIDIATA. 
_ Didelphys dimidiata, Wagner, Abhand! Akad. Miinchen, vol. vy. 
p- 151 (1847) ; Thomas, Cat. Ma:sup. 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 
feramys, 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 V. drachyura, a name previously used by 
