’ 
MARSUPIALIA. 125 
black which marks the muzzle and nearly the whole of the 
ears; the tail is also longer. 
Did. marsupialis, and Did. cancrivora, L. 3 Buff. Supp. UI, 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.(1) 
Did. opossum, L.; Buff. X, xlv, xlvi. (The Four-eyed Opos- 
sum.) Chesnut 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 ina 
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. Inyaours dre hera, (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,(2) Did. philander, and, Did. dorsigera, L.; 
Buff. X, lv. (The Cayopollin.) A greyish fawn colour; the 
circumference of the eyes and a longitudinal band on the chan- 
frin 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 posterior half of the tail white ; of the same size as 
the preceding. From Brazil. 
Did. murina, L.; Buff. X, lil, lili. (The Marmose.)(3) Fawn 
coloured grey; a brown stripe, in the middle of which is the 
eye; tail immaculate; less than a Rat. 
(1) It is the pretended Great Oriental Philander of Seba of which Linnzus has 
made‘his Did. marsupialis. Buffon, who has described the male, Supp. IIf, pl. 
liii, erroneously thought the female had no pouch, which was the cause of the 
improper establishment of a second species, Did. cancrivora, Gm., carcinophaga 
Bodd. The Crab-eater is called at Cayenne pian, or puant. 
(2) Cayopollin, the name of a species that inhabits the mountains of Mexico; hie 
has, somewhat arbitrarily, been applied to this species in particular. 
(3) 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, calledit Wood-Rat, and the 
Brazilians Tuibi; 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 skele- 
ton of a Didelphis allied to the Marmose. 
