Article XV. DESCRIPTIONS OF TWO NEW OPOS- 

 SUMS OF THE GENUS M'ETACHIRUS. 



By J. A. ALLEN. 



The Opossums of the genus Metachirus of Mexico and Central 

 America had been referred to D. quica of Temminck, the type 

 locality of which is the coast region of southeastern Brazil (cf. 

 Allen, this Bulletin, XIII, 1900, p. 195), until in October of last 

 year I separated the Central American form as Metachirus fus- 

 cogriseus (1. c., p. 194), on the basis of a specimen supposed to 

 have come from Colon. Through the kindness of Dr. C. Hart 

 Merriam, Chief of the Biological Survey, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, I have recently had opportunity to examine large 

 series of specimens from Nicaragua and various localities in 

 Mexico, numbering altogether 42 specimens. As probably no 

 large series of examples of the genus Metachirus has ever before 

 been brought together, it seems desirable to give a somewhat 

 detailed account of this important collection. 



Metachirus fuscogriseus Allen. 



Metachirus fuscogriseus ALLEN, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, 1900, p. 

 194. 



A number of specimens from Greytown and Bluefields, Nica- 

 ragua, agree well with the type of this species, supposed to have 

 come from a point somewhat further south on the coast. There 

 is, therefore, little to add to the original description of the species 

 beyond noting the variations in the specimens of the present 

 series due to age, season, etc. 



The present material consists of 4 specimens, two adult males 

 and two adult females, collected at Greytown, Feb. 7-10, 1892, by 

 Dr. C. W. Richmond, now Assistant Curator of Birds at the U. S. 

 National Museum ; and 3 adults, 3 young adults, and 5 half-grown 

 young, collected 50 miles above Bluefields on the Escondido 

 River at various dates from May to November of the same year, 

 also by Dr. Richmond, making in all 15 specimens from these two 

 localities. 



Three of the Greytown specimens are quite uniform in colora- 

 tion, while the fourth is of a duller, browner black above and 

 more strongly buffy below. The Bluefields adult and young 



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