<286 OPOSSUMS. 



In the form of their bodies they also closely resemble the 

 civets : their head is long and pointed ; the line of their profile 

 nearly straight ; their ears large and naked ; their eyes small 

 but expressive ; their mouth deeply cut, and with a wide gape ; 

 and their tongues roughened with horny papillae. Their legs 

 are rather short : on the fore-feet are five toes, all of them termi- 

 nating in strong sharp curved claws, which correspond exactly 

 with those of the anterior extremities ; the hinder-feet have the 

 thumb separated from the rest, distinctly opposable as in the 

 monkeys, and entirely destitute of nail or claw. 



Turning to their dentition, a point which must always be 

 regarded of the highest importance, we find the forms of the 

 teeth so modified in the opossums as to effect a considerable 

 diminution of the carnivorous character ; while their number, 

 surpassing that of any other mammal, also contributes to the 

 same end. They consist of ten incisors in the upper jaw and 

 of eight in the lower ; of two canines both above and below, 

 and of seven cheek teeth on each side of either jaw: making, 

 iri the whole, when the dentition is perfect, no less than fifty 

 teeth. The two middle incisors, of the upper jaw more particu- 

 larly, are separated from the rest by a slight vacancy, and are 

 consequently more prominent , they are somewhat longer. The 

 canine teeth are strong, compressed, and incurved, the upper 

 being considerably larger than the lower. Of the cheek-teeth, 

 the three anterior in each jaw are false molars, each forming 

 a simple compressed conical point 5 the remainder are true 

 molars, surmounted, as in most of the insertivorous groups, by 

 sharp-pointed tubercles, but closely approximating in their out- 

 line and disposition to the lacerators and tubercular teeth found 

 in the civets and neighbouring genera." 



