4-76 MOLUCCA OPOSSUM. 



closing the pouch so strongly as to make it ex- 

 tremely difficult to open it by the hand ; nor will 

 any torture compel the animal to loosen it. This 

 power of strongly closing the pouch is performed 

 by certain bones and muscles which Nature has 

 provided for that purpose. These were observed 

 and described by the celebrated Cowper, in the last 

 century, as also by Dr. Tyson. The female, when 

 ready to produce her young, is said to make her- 

 self a nest of dry grass, in some bush, near the 

 root of a tree. 



A variety of this species is sometimes seen, in 

 which the back is of a deep brown. This is the 

 Ditklphis Molucca of Gmelin's edition of the Sys- 

 tema Naturae of Linnaeus. 



MOLUCCA OPOSSUM. 



Didelphis Marsupialis. D.fusca, cauda mida. 



Brown O. with naked tail. 



D. mammis octo intra abdomen. Ijn. Syst. Nat. Gmel. p. iOj, 



Philander Amboinensis atro-spadiceus in dorso, in ventre ex al- 



bido cinereo-flavicans, maculis supra oculos obscure fuscis. 



Briss. Quadr. 201. 



Philander Orientalis foem. Seb. mus. i. ;;. 61. t. 38. f. i, 

 Molucca Opossum. Pennant Quadr. 2. p. 20. 

 Sarigue, ou 1'Opossum. Buff. io.p. 279. pi. 45, 46. 



THIS, which is a larger species than the for- 

 mer, seems to have been first described and figured 

 by Seba, in his work intituled Thesaurus Rerum 

 Naturalium. It is of a thinner or more slender 



