MAMMALS OF THE MEXICAN BOUNDARY. 153 



DIDELPHIS VIRGINIANA Kerr. 

 VIRGINIA OPOSSUM. 



Type-locality. — Virginia. 



Distrihutio)!. — Eastern United States, south to the roast region of 

 Georgia and Gulf States. (./. .1. Allen.) 



Texas: Vernon, 1 skull; Gainesville, 1 skull; Brazos, Palo Pinto 

 Count}^, 2; Kerrville, Kerr County, 1 skull; Mason, 4; San Antonio, 

 G; Washington County, 1; Matagorda, 1; Deming Station, Mata- 

 gorda County, 3, and 1 skull; Virginia Point, Matagorda County, 2; 

 Velasco, Brazoria County, 2. (-/. A. Allen.) 



Description. — Size large; nails, tips of toes, and soles of feet flesh 

 color; tail short, clothed for about 2 inches at base with long hair 

 like that of the body, the naked portion brownish flesh color, except 

 at the base, where it is blackish. Ears black, l)roadly tipped with 

 flesh color, or narrowly edged with this color. The pouch of the 

 female is complete, and usually thickly coated with crinkled wooly 

 hair, usually rufous brown. Pelage of two kinds of hair, an outer 

 long coat of rather coarse white overhair, sufficiently abundant to 

 give tone to the general coloration ; beneath this a coat of long, 

 thick, soft wooly underfur about 40 to 50 mm. long on the back, 

 white (sometimes nearly pure snowy wdiite in clean winter specimens, 

 but usually with a slight yellowish cast) for four-fifths of its length, 

 the apical fifth of the long fibers of the underfur being blackish. 

 The long white overhair varies in abundance in different specimens 

 and on different parts of the body, being nearly obsolete on the ven- 

 tral surface, longer on the back than on the sides, and longest on the 

 lower back and at the base of the tail, where it attains a length of 

 GO to 80 mm. General color above mixed black and white, the 

 blackish tips of the underfur showing through the long overhair; 

 the white basal portion of the underfur also shows through the 

 blackish surface of the underfur; ventral surface white, with a 

 slight wash of dusky formed by the blackish tips of the hairs. 

 There is generally a large pectoral area in adult males suffused with 

 sulphur yellow, varying from a faint shade of this tint to quite strong 

 greenish yellow, and varying also in respect to the size of the area. 

 This pectoral spot is generally absent in young males, and apparently 

 always absent in the females. The fur over this area is often satu- 

 rated with an oily, highly odorous secretion from the underlying 

 sebaceous glands, which are probably especially active during the 

 breeding season. There is often a median ventral line of clear white 

 in both males and females, extending from the breast posteriorly, 

 varying in outline and extent in different specimens. Whole head, 

 including the throat and sides of the neck, soiled white or yellowish 

 white, excepting the chin, which is usuall}' darker and like the rest 



