474- VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM. 



armed with very numerous sharp teeth : the ears 

 are thin, naked, blackish, round, and edged with 

 a border of white : the legs are short : the feet 

 armed with sharp claws, but the interior toes or 

 thumbs of the hind feet are flat and rounded, and 

 have nails like those of the Monkey tribe : the 

 tail is blackish at its origin, and covered with 

 longish hair, but from that part to the end is 

 naked, and covered with a scaly skin, the divi- 

 sions of which are marked in such a manner as 

 to give the tail very much the appearance of a 

 whitish snake : it is strongly prehensile, or pos- 

 sessed of the power of coiling, like those of se- 

 veral Monkies, round any object from which the 

 animal pleases to suspend itself. Its general co- 

 lour is a dingy yellowish white ; the legs black- 

 ish; the tail, as before observed, blackish, and 

 furred to some little distance from the base, 

 and from thence to the tip naked: the belly 

 is white; and its lower part, in the female, is 

 furnished with a large cavity or receptacle, which 

 can be opened and closed at pleasure : in this are 

 situated the teats; and in it the young, imme- 

 diately after birth, are either placed by the pa- 

 rent animal, or introduce themselves; for this 

 is one of those particulars in natural history 

 which hitherto seems to have eluded investiga- 

 tion: it is, however, more than probable, that 

 the parent herself places them there ; since, even 

 long after their residence in it, they are void of 

 hair, and resemble foetuses or embryos, strongly 

 adhering to the teats. When they have attain- 





