VOL. XX.} PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 240 



on any occasion of danger, it can receive its young: whence it may properly 

 be denominated Marsupiale Americanum ;* and it seems best referable to the 

 vermine kind, as far as may be judged from this specimen, which is a female. 



As to its dimensions, from the extremity of the nose to the tip of the tail, 

 it measured 31 inches; the length of the head 6 inches; the tail 1 foot long; 

 the compass of the body, 15^ inches; when alive and well, it seemed much 

 thicker : the fore-legs were 6 inches long ; the hinder-legs but 4-i- inches ; the 

 compass of the tail, near the root, was 3 inches; near the tip but 1 inch, 

 about the ears, the head was largest ; measuring on the forehead, from one ear 

 to the other, 3 inches ; thence gradually tapering towards the nose, and more 

 resembling that of a pig than a fox: the aperture of the eyelids not horizontal, 

 but lying in a straight line from the ears to the nose, and not large : the ears 

 were about 14 inch long; not sharp, but of a roundish figure, the rictus of 

 his mouth, from the corner on one side, to the end of the nose, measured 

 2i inches. The fore-feet have 5 long claws or fingers, equally ranging with 

 one another, and a hooked nail at the end of each finger ; but the hinder-legs 

 are formed differently, having but 4 fingers armed with hooked nails, and a 

 perfect thumb set off at a distance from the range of the other fingers. This 

 thumb had not a hooked or curved prominent nail, but a tender flat one, as in 

 a human body. This contrivance of the legs, feet, and the nails, seems very 

 advantageous to this animal in climbing up trees, which it does very nimbly in 

 quest of birds, a prey it is very fond of, though it also feeds on other things. 



These fingers, toes, or claws were naked, without hair ; the skin here show- 

 ing of a reddish colour. They were about an inch long, and the thumbs almost 

 as long, but set lower. The palms, especially when dilated, as in climbing, 

 were large; but so contrived as to be capable of contraction, as in walking; 

 but that they might be better defended from injury, at the setting on of each 

 toe there is in the palms a protuberant, fleshy, and almost cartilaginous body. 

 In feeding, it makes use of the fore-feet to bring the food to its mouth, as the 

 monkey and squirrel do. The tail was without hair, except for a little way near 

 the setting on ; tapering from the root towards the tip, and covered with a re- 

 gular order of small whitish scales, which were mostly oblong hexagons ; and 

 between each was observable a little skin or membrane in which they are fixed. 

 The colour of the scales makes the tail appear whitish, though the skin seems 

 darker. The ears were also bare, and without hair ; and though soft and 

 slender, and in colour and substance almost resembling the membrane ot a 

 bat's wing, yet they were erect, and of a circular or oval figure ; they were so 



* Didelphis Marsupialis. Linn. 

 VOL. IV. K K 



