491 



VIVERRINE OPOSSUM. 



Didelphis Viverrina. D. nigra, albo maculata, cauda villosa. 



Var. D.fusca, immaculata, cauda vUlosa. 



Black O. spotted with white, with villose tail. 



The Tapoa Tafa, or Tapha. White's Journ. p. 281, 285. 



Spotted Opossum ? Phillips voy. to Bot. Bay, p. 147. 



THIS animal is remarkable for its slender form, 

 and this, together with its sharpened visage and 

 long brushy tail, gives it, at first view, the appear- 

 ance of one of the Weesel tribe rather than that 

 of an Opossum. Its general size seems to be 

 that of a Stoat, measuring about ten inches from 

 nose to tail; and the tail itself about eight 

 inches. It appears, however, to vary in size, 

 since different describers differ greatly in their 

 accounts. In the work of Governor Phillip 

 (published by Mr. Stockdale in the year 1789), 

 it is said to measure about fifteen inches from 

 the nose to the tail ; the tail measuring about ten 

 inches; but, in Mr. White's publication, the de- 

 scription, by Mr. Hunter, states the animal to 

 be about the size of a rat. The different age 

 of the specimens examined may account for 

 these discrepances. The colour of the whole 

 animal is a deep glossy black, the whole body 

 and outsides of the limbs being spotted with 

 pretty numerous large and somewhat irregular 

 patches of white. If, however, we admit Mr. 

 Hunter's idea on this subject, the black and white 

 animal just described is of the same species 



