52 Field Museum of Natural History — Zoology, Vol. XI. 



Didelphus Virginiana Lapham, Trans. Wis. State Agr. Soc, II, 1852 (1853), p. 337 



(Wisconsin). 

 Didelphys Virginianus R. Kennicott, Trans. 111. State Agr. Soc., I, 1853-54 (1855), 



p. 580 (Cook Co., Illinois). 

 Didelphys Virginiana Thomas, Trans. 111. State Agr. Soc, IV, 1859-60 (1861), p. 656 



(Illinois). Strong, Geol. Wis., Surv. 1873-79, I. 1883, p. 440 (Wisconsin). 

 Didelphys virginiana Miles, Rept. Geol. Surv. Mich., i860 (1861), p. 220 (Michigan). 



Allen, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XIII, 1869 (1871), p. 194 (Iowa). 



OsBORN. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., I, 1887-89 (1890), p. 44 (Iowa). Wood, Bull. 



111. State Lab. Nat. Hist., VIII, 1910, p. 513 (Champaign Co., Illinois). 

 Didelphis Virginiana Hoy, Trans. Wis. Acad. Sci., Arts & Letters, V, 1882, p. 256 



(Wisconsin). 



Type locality — Virginia. 



Distribution — Eastern United States (except Florida and the coast 

 region of the Gulf states, where a slightly different form occurs), 

 north to Long Island and New York, and west, south of the Great 

 Lakes, to southern Michigan, southern Wisconsin and Iowa, thence 

 southward to eastern Texas. 



Description — Adult: General color grayish white, the under fur with 

 blackish tips and overlaid with long white hairs; legs blackish; feet 

 black, with partly white toes; whole of the head, throat, and sides of 

 the neck white, sometimes tinged with yellowish ; at times a narrow 

 blackish eye ring and usually a small blackish spot in front of the eye ; 

 ears black and nearly naked, edged with flesh color; tail nearly 

 naked, dull flesh color becoming blackish at the base; toe nails and 

 soles of feet flesh color; inner toe of hind foot thumb-like and without 

 nail. Female with external abdominal pouch into which the 13 

 teats open and in which the young are carried and nourished after 

 birth; pouch lined with soft brownish woolly hair. 



Measurements — Length, about 26 to 2>?> in. (680 to 850 mm.) ; tail, 11 to 

 13.50 in. (2S0 to 345 mm.). 



The Virginia Opossum is common in wooded localities in southern 

 Illinois and occurs sparingly in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. 

 In the latter state Moses Strong states it was "found occasionally in the 

 vicinity of Lake Michigan" (/.c.,p. 440); Hollister records three speci- 

 mens having been killed in Walworth County during the past fifteen 

 years {I. c, p. 137); Jackson states that three specimens were taken in 

 Green County, one in January, 1902, and two in the autumn of 1906. 

 Dr. Hoy writes, "The Opossum were not uncommon in Racine and Wal- 

 worth counties as late as 1848. They have been caught as far north as 

 Waukesha and one near Madison in 1872, since which time I have not 

 heard of any being taken. I am told that a few are still found in Grant 



