Information respecting Zoological Travellers. 343 



amined the geological features of the country through which he tra- 

 velled, with a view especially to record the exact position and situa- 

 tion of the coalfields, very imperfectly known to the farmers in the 

 interior of Africa. He has brought with him specimens illustrative 

 of the different formations, including the coal and fossils from the 

 beds : we anticipate giving a more detailed account of this traveller's 

 expedition in a future Number. 



Mr. Schomburgk's recent Expedition in Guiana. 

 [Continued from p. 288.] 

 1 HAVE been told of eight varieties of Opossum which inhabit Guiana, 

 five of which have come under my notice. I have identified four species 

 with those described by authors, as Didelphis cancrivora, h., D. quica, 

 Temm., D. philander, Temm. andD. dorsigera, L. andTemm. ; but the 

 fifth appears to me to stand intermediate between D. virginiana and D. 

 Azara, Screb. Temm. It differs from the latter in the absence of the 

 black markings on the head, black neck, and the black and white ears, 

 which in the Guiana species are of a uniform black colour. If we could 

 reconcile the geographical distribution of D. virginiana over a space so 

 different in temperature, I should consider the specimen which I 

 am now describing a variety of that species : the circumstance that 

 the ears are of a uniform black would scarcely constitute a specific 

 difference. Its body from the nose to the insertion of the tail mea- 

 sures 15 inches and a half, the tail 15 inches. The latter, which is 

 prehensile, is for the length of 3 inches clothed with thick fur, the 

 remainder scaly for about 4 inches, of a black colour, and afterwards 

 white. The scaly part is covered with a few short hairs, black on the 

 back part, and white for the remainder. The fore leg to the mal- 

 leolus measured 3 inches, the hind leg 4 inches. The fur is of a 

 brownish yellow, short and silky, but intermixed with longer hair of 

 white colour and somewhat stiff. ITiese white hairs are along the ver- 

 tebral line from 4 to 5 inches in length, intermixed with shorter silky 

 hair, which being black above and white beneath, give it the appear- 

 ance of a black band stretching from the head along the back to the 

 insertion of the tail. The fore and hind feet are of a dark mouse 

 colour, intermingled with a few white hairs. The ears somewhat 

 compressed at the base, naked, black, and about 1*2 inch in length. 

 Round the eyes is a dark spot of an oblong figure, but otherwise the 

 head is almost entirely of a brownish yellow. The neck is covered 

 with the same short fur of a brownish yellow as the belly, while in 

 D. Azarea it is of a black colour. The specimen which has served 



