lost MAMMALIA. 



all the animals that possess them, the Omithorinci and the Echidnce 

 would form a group parallel to that of the Edentata. 



Linnaeus arranged all the species he was accjuainted with under his ge- 

 nus Didelfhis, a word signifying double uterus. The pouch in some re- 

 spects is in fact a second one. 



The first subdivision of the Marsupialia is marked by long canini, and 

 small incisors in both jaws, back molars bristled with points, and all the 

 characters in general of the insectivorous Carnaria ; the animals that com- 

 pose it are also perfectly similar to the latter in their regimen. 



DiDELPHis, Lin. 



The Opossums*, which, of all the Marsupialia, have been the longest 

 known, form a genus peculiar to America. They have ten incisors above, 

 the middle ones being rather the longest, and eight below ; three anterior 

 compressed grinders and four posterior bristled grinders, the superior ones 

 triangular, and the inferior oblong, which, with the four canini, make in 

 all fifty teeth, the greatest number hitherto observed in quadrupeds. Their 

 tongue is papillated, and their tail prehensile and partly naked. Their 

 hinder thumb is long, and very opposable to the other four toes, from 

 which circumstance these animals are sometimes styled Pedimana; they 

 have no nail. Their extremely wide mouth, and great naked ears, give 

 give them a very peculiar physiognomy. The glans penis is bifurcated. 

 They are fetid and nocturnal animals, whose gait is slow ; they remain on 

 trees, and there pursue birds, insects, &c., though not despising fruit. 

 Their stomach is simple and small, their ccecum of a middling size, and 

 without any enlargements. 



The females of certain species have a deep pouch in which are the 

 mammae, and in which they can enclose their young. 



Did. vinjiniana, Penn. Hist. Quadr. 302-1-. (The Opossum). 

 Almost the size of a cat ; fur, a mixture of black and white ; ears, 

 one side black, and the other white ; head nearly all white. Inhabits 

 all America ; steals at night into villagies ; attacks fowls, eats their 

 eggs, &c. The young ones at birth, sometimes sixteen in number, 

 weigh only a grain each. Although blind and nearly shapeless, they 

 find the mammae by instinct, and adhere to them until they have at- 

 tained the size of a mouse, which happens about the fiftieth day, at 

 which epoch they open their eyes. They continue to return to the 

 pouch till they are as large as rats. The term of gestation in the 

 uterus is but twenty-six days*. 



Did. Azzarce, Temm. (The Gamba, or the Great Opossum of 

 of Paraguay and Brazil). Differs from the preceding in the black 



* Carigueia, according to Marcgrave, is their Brazilian name, whence we have 

 Sariguoi, Cerigon, Sarigue. They are called Micoure in Paraguay; Manicou in the 

 islands; Opossum in the United States; Thlaqualzin in Mexico. 



f It is the Sarigue des Illinois, and the Sarigue a longs poils; BuiF. Supp. VII. 

 p. xxxiii and xxxiv ; T)ul. marsiipialis, Schreb. pi. clxv. 



* See the letter of Dr. B. S. Barton to M. Kounie on the gestation of the Opossum. 



