478 MEXICAN OPOSSUM. 



Seba. It is still larger than the preceding ani- 

 mal, and appears to have broader ears, and a 

 longer and more slender tail. Its colour is darker, 

 its fur harsher or coarser, and over each eye is 

 a dusky spot. It feeds, according to Seba, on 

 fruits, and is a native of Amboina. The indi- 

 vidual represented by Seba was a female. 



Mr. Pennant very properly observes, that the 

 Count de Buffon seems to have been unacquainted 

 with the Virginian Opossum, and has figured the 

 Indian Opossum or D. marsupialis, imagining it to 

 have been the Virginian species ; to which his ac- 

 count of its manners, and the synonyms which he 

 has collected, refer. It may be proper to observe 

 here that great ambiguity and confusion seems still 

 to prevail among writers on natural history with 

 respect to the different species of Opossums, 



MEXICAN OPOSSUM. 



Pidelphjs Cayopollin. D. cauda corpore longiore, marsupio nullu, 

 orbitarum margine nigro, Lin. Syst. Nat. Gmel. p. 106. 



Brown Opossum, with tail longer than the body, and the eyes 

 surrounded with a blackish border. 



Mus Africanus Cayopollin dictus. Seb. mus. i . p. 49, t. 3 i.f. 3. <? 



Cayopollin. Buff. 10. p. 350. pi, 55. 



Mexican Opossum. Pennant Quadr. 2. p. 24. 



THE Cayopollin or Mexican Opossum has large 

 angular, naked, transparent ears, thickish snout, 

 and large whiskers. Its colour above is a brown- 

 ish or tawny ash-colour, pale grey or whitish be- 

 neath : the face is also whitish, with a dark line 



