124 MAMMALIA. 
vorous Carnaria; the animals that compose it are also nevecily 
similar to the latter in their regimen. 
Dipevpuis, Lin. 
The Opossums,(1) 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 num- ° 
ber hitherto observed in Quadrupeds. Their tongue is pdpillated, 
and their tail prehensile and partly naked. Their hinder thumb is 
long and very opposable to the other four toes, from which circum- 
stance these animals are sometimes styled Pedimana; they have no 
nail. Their extremely wide mouth, and great naked ears give them a 
very peculiar physiognomy. The glans penis is bifurcated. They 
are fetid and nocturnal animals, whose gait is slows; they remain on 
trees, and there pursue Birds, Insects, &c., though not despising 
fruit. Their stomach is simple and small, their cecum of a mid- 
dling size and without any enlargements. 
The females of certain species have a deep pouch in which are the 
mammz, and in which they can enclose their young. 
Did. virginiana, Penn. Hist. Quadr. 302.(2) (The Opos- 
sum.) Almost the size of a Cat; fur, a mixture of black and 
white ; ears, one side black, and the other white; head nearly all 
white. Inhabits all America; steals at night into villages; at- 
tacks fowls, eats their eggs, &c. The young ones at birth, 
sometimes sixteen in number, weigh only a grain each. Al- 
though blind and nearly shapeless, they find the mamme by 
instinct, and adhere to them until they have attained 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 pester in 
the uterus is but twenty-six days.(3) 
Did. Azzare, Temm. (The Gamba, or the Great ob 
of Paraguay and Brazil.) Differs from the preceding in the 
(1) Carigueia, according to Marcgrave, is their Brazilian name, whence we have 
Sariguoi, Cerigon, Sarigue. They are called Micouré in Paraguay; Manicow in the 
islands ; Opossum in the United States ; T’hlaquatzin in Mexico. 
(2) It is the Sarigue des Illinois, and the Sarigue @ longs poils ; Buff. Supp. VU, 
p- Xxxili and xxxiv ; Did. marsupialis, Schreb. pl. cxlv. 
(3) See the letter of Dr B. S. Barton to M. Roume on the gestation of the Opos- 
sum. 
