DIDELPHUS. 



277 



transparent ears, which appear reddish when seen 

 against the light, the yellow sinister eyes, the short 

 legs, and the singularly formed feet, give these ani- 

 mals a repulsive appearance, which is in no wise 

 diminished by the very fetid and offensive odour 

 which they give out. The different species vary 

 considerably in their habits ; but they may be gene- 

 rally described as nocturnal animals, the principal 

 part of which inhabit trees, in the holes of which they 

 lodge ; and they prey upon birds, lizards, and other 

 small animals. Some of them also haunt the margins 

 of the waters and feed upon shelled mollusca and 

 Crustacea. 



All the species have the general characters of mar- 

 >9upial animals, the most remarkable of which in the 

 skeleton are the two marsupial bones attached to the 

 pubis, which support the pouch. The whole of the 

 opossums have not, however, a distinct and produced 

 pouch, into which the young can be received, and, 

 therefore, there are some distinctions between them 

 in the economy of their gestation, which can be more 

 fully explained when we come to mention the species. 

 We shall have occasion to notice the general subject 

 when we come to the article MARSCPIATA ; and, 

 therefore, we shall in the mean time confine ourselves 

 chiefly to the popular description of the species. 



They are, as we have said, all nocturnal animals ; 

 and they are all carnivorous ; but they do not possess 

 the same degree of power and energy as the carni- 

 vorous animals, properly so called ; and they are 

 remarkable for stupidity, or at all events they do not 

 display the same cunning as the fox, though their eyes 

 resemble those of that animal. The habit is different, 

 however ; for the opossums, generally speaking, seek 

 their prey in trees, whereas the fox is an animal 

 which, though fond of brakes and other cover, is in- 

 capable of climbing. The form of their hind feet 

 enables them to lay hold of a branch, and retain 

 that hold, while they have perfect a command of the 

 head and anterior extremities for other purposes. 

 Thus they can make use of the crooked claws with 

 which their fore-feet are armed, to help them in the 

 capture of their prey. At settlements near the 

 woods, where they are plentiful, these animals are 

 sometimes apt to play the weasel in poultry yards ; 

 and, like that animal, they suck the blood of their 

 victims. 



It is not a little singular that marsupial animals 

 should be found in two zones of the earth, which lie 

 nearly on opposite meridians, the centre of the one 

 about 120 east, and the other about 60 west of the 

 meridian of London ; and that in all the districts 

 between them there should be no animal of this cha- 

 racter, or even approaching to it. What stage ol 

 the geological duration of countries may answer to 

 animals of this singular order, it is not easy to say 

 for, though we admit that a few specimens have been 

 found fossil in our own latitudes, it is impossible fo 

 us thence to conclude that the animals belong either 

 to an early or a late stage of the country ; for we 

 have them in the rich woods of South America, ane 

 in the comparatively barren extent of New Holland 

 while there are none in Southern Africa, which is 

 inter mediate between these, and partakes of the 

 characters of both. 



We shall now briefly enumerate the species ; anc 

 .first those in which the female is furnished with a dis- 

 tinct abdominal pouch for the reception of her young 

 during a portion of the period of ger-tation, and as a 

 place of safety occasionally till they are able to shift 



or themselves. Of these there are three tolerably 

 veil established. 



THE VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM Didelphus Virgimana. 

 This species is by far the best known, at least to 

 the people of this country, from its abundance in the 

 southern parts of the United States. But as it is very 

 generally distributed over America as far as the bor- 

 ders of Patagonia, or at all events to the margins of 

 the Pampas, the name Virginian is by no means de- 

 scriptive of it: indeed there is nothing tends more to 

 confuse the nomenclature of natural history, than the 

 naming of natural productions, whether animal or 

 vegetable, after places, or after individuals of the 

 human race. The first method ties the production 

 down to the place named ; and though there may be 

 no great harm in naming a particular breed of cattle, 

 sheep, or pigs, after the place which is most famed 

 for their production, yet in cases like the one under 

 notice, it is very absurd, the Virginian opossum 

 being found over a range in latitude of certainly not 

 less than five thousand miles, while the individuals 

 are far more numerous in South America than -in 

 North, if the whole surface of each be taken. 



The usual size of the opossum is the same as that 

 of a cat ; its covering consists of a mixture of black 

 and white hairs, with the ears having the one part 

 black and the other white. The head often entirely 

 white. It is very generally distributed, inhabits the 

 woods, is not timid in the vicinity of settled places, 

 prowls about in the night, killing poultry, sucking 

 eggs, and committing other little depredations ; but 

 we need hardly add that, to man, it is quite harm- 

 less. The young, which are often as many as seven 

 in number, are exceedingly light and small, at the time 

 of their birth, that is, the time of their first birth, when 

 transferred from the internal uterus to the pouch. The 

 gestation in the uterus lasts twenty-six days, at the 

 end of which the young have no vestiges of eyes or of 

 ears, and are, indeed, little else than small lumps of 

 gelatinous matter. They do not open their eyes till 

 about the fiftieth day ; but they readily find out the 

 teats in the pouch, and attaching themselves to these, 

 they increase in size. They remain in the pouch, or 

 at feast resort to it occasionally as a place of safety, 

 until they are grown to about the size of rats. 



The Virginian opossum, extending as it does over so 

 vast a range in latitude, is subject to much variation of 

 colour. There is also considerable difference between 

 the appearance of the young ones and those which 

 have arrived at perfect maturity. The body of the 

 young animal is generally of a yellowish-grey, mixed 

 with some hairs entirely white, and others entirely 

 black ; the last of which are most abundant along the 

 back, and give that part of the animal the appearance 

 of being marked with a dorsal line. A band of a 

 similar colour descends from each side of the neck 

 to the fore-legs ; these legs and also the hind ones are 

 covered with black hairs, and the tail is covered 

 with scales, with a few short and weak hairs thinly 

 interspersed. The hands, that is the prehensile parts 

 of the hind feet, the ears, and the point of the 

 muzzle are naked. The skin on the soles of the fret 

 is violet black ; but the toes and nails are flesh- 

 coloured. The whiskers, which appear to be used as 

 instruments of touch, as is the case with all mamma- 

 lia which seek their prey by night ; and it is pre- 

 sumed also, that the toes, which have a very delicate 

 covering, are highly sensitive. The eyes are small, 

 without any external lids, and are remarkable for their 

 convexity and consequent projection jcyond their 



