MARSUPIALIA. 109 
which marks the muzzle and nearly the whole of the ears; the tail 
is also longer. 
Did. marsupialis, and Did. cancrivora, L.; Buff. Supp. IIT. liv. 
(The Crab-eating Opossum). Size of the preceding; yellowish, 
mixed with brown, with brown hairs; a brown streak on the chanfrin. 
It frequents the marshes of the sea coast, where it feeds chiefly on 
crabs*. 
Did. opossum, Z.; Buff. X. xlv, vivi. (The Four-eyed Opossum). 
Chestnut above, white below, a white or pale yellow spot over each 
eye; posterior third of the tail white; larger than a large rat. 
Other species possess no pouch, having a mere vestige of it in a fold 
of the skin on each side of the abdomen. They usually carry their young 
on their backs, the tails of the latter being entwined around that of the 
mother. 
Did. nudicauda, Geoft.; D. myosuros, Temm. (The Bare-tailed 
Opossum). Fawn-coloured: tail very long, and naked even at its 
base; two whitish spots over each eye, one beneath. 
Did. cayopollin}, Did. philander, and Did. dorsigera, L.; Butt. 
X. lv. (The Cayopollin). A greyish fawn colour; the circumfer- 
ence of the eyes and a longitudinal band on the chanfrin brown; tail 
marked with black; size that of the Norway rat. The superior third 
of the tail furnished with hairs. 
Did. cinerea, Temm. (The Cinereous Didelphis). A light ash 
colour, with blackish reflections; some red on the breast; the pos- 
terior half of the tail white; of the same size as the preceding. From 
Brazil. 
Did. murina, L.; Buff. X. lii, liti. (The Marmose)t. Fawn- 
coloured grey; a brown stripe, in the middle of which is the eye; tail 
immaculate: less than a rat. 
Did. brachyura, Pall., Buff. Supp. VII. lxi. (The Touan). Black, 
blackish; flanks of a vivid red; belly white; tail shorter than the 
body. Less thana rat. The three latter species are from South 
America. 
Finally, there is one known with palmated feet, which must be 
aquatic; it is not ascertained whether or not it has a pouch—t is the 
* Itisthe pretended Great Oriental Philander of Seba, of which Linnzus has made 
his Did. marsupialus. Buffon, who has described the male, Supp. III. pl. iii, erro- 
neously thought the female had no pouch, which was the cause of the improper est1- 
blishment of a second species, Did. cancrivora. Gm., carcinophaga, Bodd. The Crab- 
eater is called at Cayenne pian or puant. 
+ Cayopollin, the name of a species that inhabits the mountains of Mexico; it has, 
somewhat arbitrarily, been applied to this species in particular. 
t Marmose, a name adopted by Buffon from a typographical error in the French 
translation of Seba, who assures us in the text that it is called Marmot in Brazil. 
The truth is, that the Dutch, in the time of Marcgrave, called it Wood- Rat, and the 
Brazilians T'aibi; Rat-de-bois is also its name among the French at Cayenne. Seba 
must have rendered Bosch-ratte by Marmot. 
N.B. There has been found, in the plaster quarries near Paris, the fossil skeleton 
ofa Didelphis allied to the Marmose. 
