30 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



tinguished by shades of difference so very easy to confound, 

 that the character may be lost by the slightest negligence. 

 The utmost exactitude is indispensably requisite, and the 

 frequent want of it in figures may be clearly observed by 

 those who have an opportunity of comparing the living 

 species. This is true, in a most especial manner of those 

 singular animals that constitute the sub-genus Didelphis. 



M. F. Cuvier seems to think, from a consideration of the 

 figures given by Seba, Schreber and BufFon, that the first 

 time the species of the Crab-eating Sarigue, (Did. Marsu- 

 pialis et cancrivora) has been represented from nature, was 

 in his new great Lithographic work on the Mammalia. 

 This accurate naturalist adds, that he had simultaneously, 

 under his immediate inspection, a young female Opossum 

 of the species, (Didelphis Virginiana), a second female Sa- 

 rigue, to which, but with some hesitation, he gives the 

 name of the young Opossum, and the Crab-eating Sarigue, 

 (D. Marsupialis et cancrivora). The colour of the first is 

 whiter, and its size is larger than those of the others ; the 

 second has a good deal of black in its fur, and the third is 

 of a yellowish tint. These two last are nearly of the same 

 size, and have a slenderer muzzle, and straighter forehead 

 than the first. In this the face is large, and there is a very 

 sensible depression at the lower part of the forehead. The 

 young Opossum has a muzzle still slenderer than that of the 

 Crab-eater, and in common with the Didelphis of Virginia, 

 it has a white spot at the extremity of the ears, and white 

 toes. All the mustaches of the Crab-eater are black ; the 

 young Opossum has no black in its mustaches, except above 

 the eyes and nose ; all the rest are white. The Didelphis 

 of Virginia has all its mustaches white. 



The head of the Sarigue, which is the subject of this ar- 

 ticle, (Did. Marsupialis et cancrivora) is yellowish white, 

 while the ears, eyes, and mustaches are black, strongly con- 

 trasting with the pale ground of the head. The neck, the 



