108 MAMMALTA. 
all the animals that possess them, the Ornithorinci and the Echidne 
would form a group parallel to that of the Edentata. 
Linneus arranged all the species he was acquainted with under his ge- 
nus Didelphis, a word signifying double uterus. The pouch in some re- 
spects is in fact a second one. 
The first subdivision of the Marsupialia is marked by long canini, and 
small incisors in both jaws, back molars bristled with points, and all the 
characters in general of the insectivorous Carnaria; the animals that com- 
pose it are also perfectly similar to the latter in their regimen. 
Divetpuis, Lin. 
The Opossums*, which, of all the Marsupialia, have been the longest 
known, form a genus peculiar to America. They have ten incisors above, 
the middle ones being rather the longest, and eight below; three anterior 
compressed grinders and four posterior bristled grinders, the superior ones 
triangular, and the inferior oblong, which, with the four canini, make in 
all fifty teeth, the greatest number hitherto observed in quadrupeds. Their 
tongue is papillated, and their tail prehensile and partly naked. Their 
hinder thumb is long, and very opposable to the other four toes, from 
which circumstance these animals are sometimes styled Pedimana; they 
have no nail. ‘Their extremely wide mouth, and great naked ears, give 
give them a very peculiar physiognomy. The glans penis is bifurcated. 
They are fetid and nocturnal animals, whose gait is slow; they remain on 
trees, and there pursue birds, insects, &c., though not despising fruit. 
Their stomach is simple and small, their cecum of a middling size, and 
without any enlargements. 
The females of certain species have a deep pouch in which are the 
mamme, and in which they can enclose their young. 
Did. virginiana, Penn. Hist. Quadr. 8302+. (The Opossum). 
Almost the size of a cat; fur, a mixture of black and white; ears, 
one side black, and the other white; head nearly ail white. Inhabits 
all America; steals at night into villages; attacks fowls, eats their 
egos, &c. The young ones at birth, sometimes sixteen in number, 
weigh only a grain each. Although blind and nearly shapeless, they 
find the mamme by instinct, and adhere to them until they have at- 
tained the size of a mouse, which happens about the fiftieth day, at 
which epoch they open their eyes. They continue to return to the 
pouch till they are as large as rats. The term of gestation in the 
uterus is but twenty-six days*. 
Did. Azzare,'Temm. (The Gamba, or the Great Opossum of 
of Paraguay and Brazil). Differs from the preceding in the black 
* Carigueia, according to Marcgrave, is their Brazilian name, whence we have 
Sariguoi, Cerigon, Sarigue. They are called Micowre in Paraguay; Manicou in the 
islands; Opossum in the United States; Thlaquatzin in Mexico. 
+ Itis the Sarigue des Illinois, and the Sarigue a longs poils; Buff. Supp. VIT. 
p- Xxxili and xxxiv; Did. marsupialis, Schreb. pl. clxv. 
* See the letter of Dr. B.S. Barton to M. Roume on the gestation of the Opossum. 
