74 MAMMALIA. 



being rather the longest, and eight below ; three anterior compressed grinders, 

 and four posterior bristled grinders, the superior ones triangular, and the 

 inferior ones oblong, which, with the four canini, make'in all fifty teeth, the 

 greatest number hitherto observed in Quadrupeds. Their tongue is papillated, 

 and their tail prehensile, and partly naked. Their hinder thumb is long, and 

 very opposable to the other four toes, from which circumstance these animals 

 are sometimes styled Pedimana ; they have no nail. Their extremely wide 

 mouth and great naked ears give them a very peculiar physiognomy. They 

 are fetid and nocturnal animals, whose gait is slow; they remain on trees, and 

 there pursue birds, insects, &c., though not despising fruit. 



The females of certain species have a deep pouch, in which are the mamma?, 

 and in which they can enclose their young. 



Did. virginiana, Penn. (The Opossum.) Almost the size of a cat; fur, 

 a mixture of black and white ; ears, one side black, and the other white ; head 

 nearly all white. Inhabits all America; steals at night into villages ; attacks 

 fowls, eats their eggs, &c. The young ones at birth , sometimes sixteen in 

 number, weigh only a grain each. Although blind and nearly shapeless, they 

 find the mamma? by instinct, and adhere to them until they have attained the 

 size of a mouse, which happens about the fiftieth day, at which epoch they 

 open their eyes. They continue to return to the pouch till they are as large 

 as rats. 



Other species possess no pouch, having a mere vestige of it in a fold of the 

 skin on each side of the abdomen. They usually carry their young on 

 their backs, the tails of the latter being entwined around that of the mother. 



Did. nudicauda, Geoff. (The Bare-tailed Opossum.) Fawn-coloured ; tail 

 very long, and naked even at its base ; two whitish spots over each eye, one 

 beneath. 



Finally, there is one known with palmated feet, which must be aquatic ; it 

 is not ascertained whether it has a pouch or not it is the 



CHIRONECTES, Uliger *. 



Did. palamta, Geoff. Brown above, with three transverse grey bands, inter- 

 rupted in the middle, and white below ; larger than a Norway rat. 



All the other Marsupialia inhabit eastern countries, New Holland parti- 

 cularly, a land whose animal population seems chiefly to belong to this 

 family. 



THYLACINUS, Temminck -J-. 



The Thylacini are the largest of this first division. They are distinguished 

 from the opossums by the hind feet having no thumb ; a .hairy, non-prehen- 

 sile tail, and two incisors less in each jaw ; their molars are of the same 

 number. They, consequently, have forty-six teeth ; but the external edge of 



Chirunectes, \. e. swimming with hands. f Thylacinus, from li/Xa**;, purse. 



