DID 



DID 



D. virginiana, the Virginian opossum. 

 The size of this animal is little interior to 

 that of the domestic cat ; its tail is cover- 

 ed with a scaly skin, the divisions of 

 which give it the resemblance of a small 

 snake, and the animal has the faculty of 

 coiling it with great tenacity round any 

 object, and of thus increasing its means 

 of defence and attack, and its facility of 

 movement among the branches of trees. 

 The teats of the female are inclosed in 

 that astonishing receptacle which dis- 

 tinguishes almost every species of this 

 animal ; and immediately after their 

 birth, tlie young are introduced by their 

 parent to that cavity, or resort to it from 

 an impult : of their own. After first 

 emerging from it, on attaining a certain 

 degree of growth and vigour, they have 

 ivpeated recourse to it on alarms of dan- 

 ger, and are securely kept, and even 

 carried about in it by the dam, till all 

 ground of apprehension ceases. In some 

 species this cavity does not exist, and na- 

 ture has substituted for it a sort of fur- 

 row. The Virginian opossum is gentle 

 and inoffensive in its manners, but has a 

 rank and disagreeable smell. It is well 

 known to almost every farmer, that this 

 animal, when overtaken or captured by 

 hunters, will feign itself dead, and may 

 be carried a considerable distance with- 

 out exhibiting any appearance of We. 

 The female produces four or five at a 

 birth, and prepares a sort of nest for her- 

 self, of grass, near the root of a tree. 

 She has the power of closing her pouch, 

 and preserving it closed so completely, 

 as to render it a matter of great difficulty 

 to open it. D. marsupialis, the Ambovna 

 opossum, is found in the warmer climates 

 of South America, as well as in some 

 countries of the East. It is bred with 

 rabbits in India, and passes, indeed, un- 

 der the name of the Aroe rabbit. It is 

 not only considered as fit for food, but 

 regarded as a considerable delicacy. 

 This species is much larger than the last. 

 D.lcmurina, or the New Holland bear. 

 The length of tin's animal's body is about 

 a foot and a half, and that of its tail about 

 a foot. It is, perhaps, the most elegant 

 species of the genus. In its manners, or 

 mode of subsistence, it resembles the 

 other species ; it is frequently perceived, 

 however, to sit like a squirrel with its 

 body erect, and holding its food in its 

 hands. Its fur is extremely rich, soft, 

 and thick. D. petaurus, or the great fly- 

 ing opossum of New Holland, is nearly 

 two feet in length to the beginning of its 

 tail, which is nearly two feet more. By 

 an expansile membrane reaching on each. 



side of its body, from the fore to the 

 hind legs, it is enabled to leap to an ex- 

 traordinary distance, and has thus gained 

 the designation by which it is distinguish- 

 ed. Its fur is of the most exquisite fine- 

 ness, and for the greater part, of a sable 

 or deep-grey brown colour, extremely 

 brilliant. See Mammalia, Plate IX. fig. 

 2. D. sciurea, or the squirrel opossum. 

 This and the last species are considered 

 by Shaw as the two most beautiful qua- 

 drupeds in New South Wales. Its gene- 

 ral appearance extremely resembles that 

 of a squirrel. Its fur is, if possible, more 

 soft and valuable than that of the flying 

 opposum. Its abdominal pouch is rather 

 beyound the usual proportion. This ani- 

 mal reposes by day, but during the night 

 ranges in full activity. 



DIDELTA, in botany, a genus of die 

 Syngenesia Polygamia Frustranea class 

 and order. Natural order of Compound 

 Flowers. Corymbiferac, Jussieu. Essen- 

 tial character: calyx expanding; outer- 

 leafy ; receptacle honey-combed, divid- 

 ing into parts which retain the seeds ; 

 down chaffy, many-leaved. There are 

 two species, D. carnosa, succulent-leaved 

 didelta, has an herbaceous stem, very 

 much branched, erect, round, nearly 

 eighteen inches high ; leaves alternate, 

 sessile, spreading, acute, attenuated at 

 the base, quite entire, woolly above, be- 

 neath one-nerved, veinless, two or three 

 inches long, six or eight lines broad ; in 

 the stove permanent; flowers solitary, 

 terminating on long peduncles, yellow ; 

 annual, but in the stove it will last some 

 years, becoming shrubby, which is often 

 the case with annual plants. It is a native 

 of the Cape ; also D. spinosa; where they 

 flower about July. 



DIDUS, the dodo, in natural history, a 

 genus of birds of the order Gallinae. Ge- 

 neric character : bill large, and, at the 

 middle of the upper mandible, bending 

 inwards, marked with two oblique ribs, 

 and considerably hooked at the tip ; nos- 

 trils situated in the middle of the bill, 

 and obliquely near the edge ; legs short, 

 thick, and in the upper part feathered ; 

 feet cleft ; toes three forward and one 

 backward ; no tail. There are three 

 species. D. ineptus, or the hooded dodo, 

 is nearly three feet long, and inhabits 

 tin- islands of Bourbon and France. Its 

 pace is slow ; its body round and fat ; 

 its weight, occasionally, fifty pounds ; and 

 though sometimes eaten, according to 

 Herbert, is considered as indifferent rood. 

 Its head appears to be covered with a 

 black cowl, and, altogether, its figure is 

 singularly curious and grotesque. In Mr. 



