1900.] Allen, The Generic Names Didelphis and Philander. 187 



Transactions' in 1698 (Vol. XX, No. 239, pp. 105-164, with 2 

 pll.), and based on an animal " brought alive from Virginia," 

 of which he gave not only a scientific and detailed account of its 

 anatomy but also of its external characters. Linnseus's reference is 

 to Tyson's second memoir on the same animal, published six years 

 later (Philos. Trans., Vol. XXIV, 1704, pp. 1565-1575), which is 

 followed by a memoir by Dr. Cowper, on ' The Anatomy of those 

 Parts of a Male Opossum that differ from the Female ' (ibid., pp. 

 1576-1590, with i pi.). " This male Opossum," says Dr. Cowper, 

 " as well as the female dissected by Dr. Tyson, was brought from 

 Virginia, and presented to the Royal Society." Then follow ref- 

 erences to DeLaet, Marcgrave, Piso, and Hernandez, which 

 mainly relate to the large South American Opossums, but not 

 very distinctly to any particular form of this varied group. In 

 the reference to Tyson we have distinctly a reference to the 

 Virginia Opossum, and to that member of the Opossum group 

 only. It therefore seems consonant with the rules of nomencla- 

 ture for such cases, as well as with current usage, to fix the name 

 Didelphis marsupialis upon the Virginia Opossum, which thus be- 

 comes, by elimination, the type of the Linnaean genus Didelphis. 

 Then we have, in chronological sequence, Didelphis karkinophaga 

 Zimmermann (1780), based exclusively on * Le Crabier ' of 

 Buffon (Suppl., Vol. Ill, p. 272, pi. liv) from Cayenne, for the 

 form from northeastern South America ; D. azarcz Temminck 

 (1826 J ) for the animal of Paraguay and Bolivia, and Didelphis 

 aurita Wied (1826) for the form from southeastern Brazil. Later 

 followed Didelphis calif ornica and D. breviceps (1833), based 

 on specimens from Mexico. 



The name Sarigua, in the French vernacular form Sarigues, 

 was used by G. Cuvier (Tabl. elem. de 1' Hist. Nat. Anim., an 6 

 [=1798], p. 124) as early as 1798 for the American Marsupials 

 collectively, as the name of the first of his three divisions of 

 Didelphis Linn., the others being, respectively, Dasyures and 

 Phalangers, for the Australian Marsupials. Desmarest used the 

 term Sarigue as a vernacular equivalent of Didelphis Linn, in 



1 As there seems to be no doubt that the second volume of Wied's ' Beitrage zur Natur- 

 geschichte von Brasilien ' was published in 1826, it seems certain that that part of Temminck's 

 ' Monographies de Mammalogie' treating of the Opossums should bear at least as early a date, 

 as Wied cites this part of Temminck's work, giving page references. Thus aurita has evi- 

 dently not " a year's clear priority over azara" as stated by Alston (Biol. Cent.-Am., p. 197), 

 but is of somewhat later date. 



