102 



T/ie Naturalist in La Plata. 



than any animal I had ever observed. I have seen 

 an old female opossum (Didelphys azarae) with 

 eleven young, large as old rats the mother being 

 less than a cat in size all clinging to various 

 parts of her body; yet able to climb swiftly and 

 with the greatest agility in the higher branches of 

 a tree. The actual weight was in this case rela- 



Didelphys azarae and young. 



tively much greater than in that of the female bat ; 

 but then the opossum never quitted its hold on 

 the tree, and it also supplemented its hand-like 

 feet, furnished with crooked claws, with its teeth 

 and long prehensile tail. The poor bat had to 

 seek its living in the empty air, pursuing its prey 

 with the swiftness of a swallow, and it seemed 



