Article XVI. DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW AMERICAN 

 MARSUPIALS. 



By J. A. ALLEN. 



During the last two years the Museum has received a consid- 

 erable number of specimens of South American and Central 

 American Marsupials, and in endeavoring to critically determine 

 this material, as well as that previously in the Museum, the fol- 

 lowing species and subspecies appear to have been hitherto 

 undescribed. 



Didelphis pernigra, sp. nov. 



Type, No. 16071, ?ad., Juliaca, Peru, altitude 7000 feet, Feb. 12, IQOO ; 

 coll. H. H. Keays. 



Entire upper parts, except the head, intense glistening black, the long thick 

 black overhair entirely unmixed with the long, stiff white hairs seen in the D. 

 marsupialis group ; basal half or more of the soft woolly underfur pale yel- 

 lowish white, the tips black, the whitish underfur concealed by the thick, heavy 

 coat of black overhair ; head white, with three prominent, sharply defined 

 black bands, two of which are lateral, enclosing the eyes and extending from 

 the base of the whiskers to a little behind the eyes, and continued as an ill- 

 defined dusky patch nearly to the ears ; the median black band begins as a 

 narrow stripe opposite the anterior margin of the eyes and rapidly widens 

 posteriorly to the nape where it merges with the black of the body ; cheeks 

 and throat rusty buff ; rest of the lower parts, except the area enclosing the 

 abdominal pouch, buffy white, with the tips of the hairs black, imparting a 

 strong tinge of this color to the ventral surface ; pouch clothed within and 

 around its outer border with short crisp woolly hairs of a reddish chestnut tint ; 

 ears of medium size, entirely white, in striking contrast with the deep black of 

 the upper surface of the body ; feet black, the toes dusky brown and nearly 

 naked ; tail black for the basal two to three fifths, the rest white. 



A young male about one fourth to one third grown differs in no respect in 

 coloration from the adults. None of the specimens show any trace of the long 

 white bristly overhairs so characteristic of the other forms of Didelphis. 



Measurements. Type (female), total length, 750 mm. ; head and body, 383 ; 

 tail, 367 ; hind foot, 65 ; ear (in dry skin), 26 x 25. A second specimen, also 

 an adult female, measures as follows : Total length, 710 ; head and body, 

 343 ; tail, 367 ; hind foot, 61. 



Skull (of type), total length, 87.5 ; basal length, 82 ; nasals, 42 ; palate, 52 ; 

 zygomatic breadth, 42.5 ; mastoid breadth, 28; interorbital breadth in front 

 of postorbital processes, 28.5, behind postorbital processes, n. The skull of 

 a specimen of D. karkinophaga from Trinidad of corresponding age is much 



