MARSUPIALIA. 109 



which marks the muzzle and nearly the whole of the ears; the tail 

 is also longer. 



Did. marsupialis, and Did, cancrivora, L. ; Buff. Supp. III. liv. 

 (The Crah-eating Opossum). Size of the preceding; yellowish, 

 mixed with brown, with brown hairs; a brown streak on the chanfrin. 

 It frequents the marshes of the sea coast, where it feeds chiefly on 

 crabs*. 



Did. opossum, Z. ; BufF. X. xlv, vlvi. (The Four-eyed Opossum). 



Chestnut above, white below, a white or pale yellow spot over each 



eye ; posterior third of the tail white ; larger than a large rat. 



Other species possess no pouch, having a mere vestige of it in a fold 



of the skin on each side of the abdomen. They usually carry their young 



on their backs, the tails of the latter being entwined around that of the 



mother. 



Did. nudicauda, Geoff. ; D. myosuros, Temm. (The Bare-tailed 

 Opossum). Fawn-coloured: tail very long, and naked even at its 

 base ; two whitish spots over each eye, one beneath. 



Did. caiiopolUn\, Did. philander, and Did. dorsigera, L. ; Buff. 

 X. Iv. (The Cayopollin). A greyish fawn colour ; the circumfer- 

 ence of the eyes and a longitudinal band on the chanfrin brown ; tail 

 marked with black ; size that of the Norway rat. The superior third 

 of the tail furnished with hairs. 



Did. cinerea, Temm. (The Cinereous Didelphis). A light ash 

 colour, with blackish reflections ; some red on the breast ; the pos- 

 terior half of the tail white ; of the same size as tlie preceding. From 

 Brazil. 



Did. murina, L. ; BufF. X. lii, liii. (The Marmose)J. Fawn- 

 coloured grey ; a brown stripe, in the middle of which is the eye ; tail 

 immaculate : less than a rat. 



7)?'cZ.6rflc/?2/Mra, Pall., Buff. Supp. VII. Ixi. (The Touan). Black, 

 blackish; flanks of a vivid red; belly white; tail shorter than the 

 body. Less than a rat. The three latter species are from South 

 America. 



Finally, there is one known with palmated feet, which must be 

 aquatic ; it is not ascertained whether or not it has a pouch — it is the 



* It is the pretended Great Oriental Philander of Seba, of which Linnseus has made 

 his Did.marsupialus. Buftbii, who has described the male, Supp. III. pi. liii, erro- 

 neously tliought the female had no pouch, which was the cause of the improper esta- 

 blishment of a second species. Did. cancrivora. Gni., carcinophaga, Bodd. The Crab- 

 eater is called at Cayenne pian or puant. 



t Cayopollin, the name of a species that inhabits the mountains of Mexico; it has, 

 somewhat arbitrarily, been applied to this species in particular. 



X Ma)-mose, a name adopted by Buffon from a typographical error in the French 

 translation of Seba, wlio assures us in the text that it is called Marmot in Brazil. 

 The truth is, that the Dutch, in the time of Marcgrave, called it fVood-ltat, and the 

 Brazilians Taibi; Rat-de-bois is also its name among the French at Cayenne. Seba 

 must have rendered Bosch-ratte by Marmot. 



N. B. There has been found, in the plaster quarries near Paris, the fossil skeleton 

 of a Didelphis allied to the Marmose. 



