328 



swollen. Saturday, 6th, passed without my inspection; but my ser- 

 vant examined the pouch, and discovered no young ones at the teats. 

 At 3 P. M. on Sunday, 7th March, I opened the pouch, and disco- 

 vered the young animals adhering to the nipples. 



Here, then, was a manifest preparation for the reception of the 

 marsupial young, began on Wednesday, the 3d March, and com- 

 pleted by Sunday, the 7th, which is four days. Hence it is clear 

 that the notion heretofore entertained, that the embryo makes the 

 teat wherever it happens to take hold, is unfounded, the preparation 

 being as complete as in any other mammal. 



The uterine gestation probably terminated on the night of Satur- 

 day, March the 6lh, or the morning of Sunday, the 7th. The rut 

 probably continued as late as the 18th or 19th February, which is 

 17 or 18 days; possibly the impregnations may have been a few 

 days earlier than the said dates. 



The observation settles, at least, the question as to one of the re- 

 productive seasons, which in this case was February. 



In Mr. Owen's observation on the kanguroo, the uterine gestation 

 lasted thirty-nine days ; but the kanguroo is a large animal in com- 

 parison; the opossum rarely being more than fifteen or sixteen pounds 

 in weight. 



Mr. Owen does not mention the preliminary condition of the mam- 

 mary glands in the kanguroo. 



Thirteen young opossums were attached to as many nipples, all 

 strongly adhering, and busily employed in sucking the milk. 



They moved the forearms, and paws, and heads, very freely; so 

 1;hat to open the sphincter marsupii was to disclose a very lively 

 rscene. 



They were of a deep rose-tint, and without hair. 



They were of equal size. I pulled one off from the nipple; and 

 the attachment was so strong, that I expected to tear the body in two 

 before I disengaged the mammilla from the stomal pore in which it 

 was engaged. There was no bulb at the end of the nipple after the 

 detachment of the young one. 



No blood about the mouth or on the nipple followed the separation. 



It was removed at 40 minutes past 7 P. M. It weighed exactly 

 three grains and a half. 



From the snout to the end of the tail it was eight-tenths of an inch 

 long. 



Laid in a watch glass, it moved freely round and round the glass, 

 and turned over on one side and the other. 



