NO. 5 MAMMALS OF PANAMA — GOLDMAN 45 



CHIRONECTES PANAMENSIS Goldman 



Panama Water Opossum 



[Plate 20, figs. 2, 2a] 



Chironectes panamensis Goldman, Smiths. Misc. Coll., Vol. 63, No. 5, p. I, 

 March 14, 1914. Type from Cana, eastern Panama, altitude 2,000 feet. 



The water opossums are little known. They occur in suitable 

 localities entirely across South America and northward through 

 Middle America to Tuxtla Chico in extreme southern Mexico, but 

 are rare, and few specimens have found their way into museum col- 

 lections. A specimen from Cana, eastern Panama, has been made 

 the type of a species apparently differing from C. minimus of north- 

 eastern South America mainly in various cranial details, especially 

 the longer, evenly tapering and posteriorly pointed, instead of trun- 

 cate, nasals. The type was caught in a steel trap baited with fish 

 and set beneath the surface of the water in a small rock-bordered 

 stream at 2,000 feet altitude. In Brazil, according to Waterhouse, 1 

 " two of Dr. Natterer's specimens, that gentleman informed me, were 

 caught near water not far from Rio Janeiro, and a third was cap- 

 tured in the water, alive, near Para, in a basket similar to those used 

 for catching eels in this country: it had made its way through the 

 funnel-shaped opening, and could not return ; thus proving that the 

 animals are good divers. They feed upon crustaceans, and no doubt 

 upon other aquatic animals." 



Specimens examined : Aside from the type mentioned, no speci- 

 mens of Chironectes panamensis have been recorded from Panama, 

 but ten examples have been examined by me from localities in 

 Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. 



Genus DIDELPHIS Linnaeus 

 The typical genus of the family includes the largest species of the 

 region, the type of animal that inhabits the southeastern United 

 States. The forms are externally distinguished from the other 

 opossums by the coarse hair, or bristles, which project conspicuously 

 beyond the shorter and softer under fur. 



DIDELPHIS MARSUPIALIS ETENSIS Allen 



Eten Opossum ; Zorro 



Didelphis marsupialis etensis Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. 16, 

 p. 262, August 18, 1902. Type from Eten, Piura, Peru. 



Large opossums of the common coarse-haired Didelphis virginiana 

 type are abundant nearly throughout the region. The status of the 



1 Nat. Hist. Mamm., Vol. I, p. 535, 1846. 



