ADS MERIAN’S OPOSSUM. 
capable of affording a firm hold, and thus secures itself against any unfortunate slip 
of its paws. 
On the level ground its pace is slow, and its gait awkward. It is, however, seldom 
seen upon the ground, as it is unwilling to forego the advantages of its arboreal residence, 
except for the purpose of obtaining food. Like the Virginian Opossum, it feeds chiefly 
on animal food, such as the smaller mammalia, birds, reptiles, and insects, and is so fond 
of crustacea, that it has been called the Crab-eater from that predilection. As the crabs 
and other crustaceans on which it feeds are usually found upon low and marshy soils, 
the Crab-eating Opossum is in the habit of frequenting such localities, and may generally 
be found in their neighbourhood. 
This animal is held in some estimation, as furnishing an agreeable meal to those who 
care for such diet, and its flesh is said by the initiated to resemble that of the hare. The 
young of the Crab-eating Opossum are, during their days of infancy, coloured very 
differently from the adult animal. When first they are born, they are entirely naked, 
but when they are large enough to leave the pouch, they are clothed with short silken 
hairs of a bright chestnut brown, which, after a while, fades into the dark brownish-black 
of the full-grown animal. In all eases the tinting of the fur is rather variable. 
The Crab-eating Opossum is found very numerously in the Brazils, and is spread over 
the whole of tropical America. 
MERIAN’S OPOSSUM.—Philander Dorsigerus. 
THE beautiful little animal which is so well depicted in the engraving affords another 
instance of a marsupiated animal being devoid of a true pouch. 
In Merian’s OpossuM there is no true pouch, and the place of that curious 
structure is only indicated by a fold of skin, so that during the infancy of its young, the 
mother is obliged to have recourse to that singular custom which has gained for it the 
title of “ dorsigerus,” or back-bearing. At a very early age, the young Opossums are shifted 
to the back of their mother, where they cling tightly to their mother’s fur with their little 
hand-like feet, and further secure themselves by twining their own tails round that of the 
parent. The little group which is here given, was sketched from a stuffed specimen fn 
