POUCHED MAMMALS, 



Z13 



after time, and then, after .carrying it by the tail for some distance, 

 discovered that it was still alive. Much of the difficulty arises from their 

 habit of shamming. Once I smoked out a female and two one-third grown 

 young onjes. A young one came first and was apparently laid out with a 

 blow from my stick ; I had to run round the rock after the next, and when 

 I came back (in less than half a minute) the first had come to life again and 

 departed. An old buck, worried by a dog and finished off with a shot in the 

 head from a collecting-gun and left for dead, was found an hour or so after 

 partly recovered. A fumade was brought in with ten young, naked, pink, 

 and blind ; head and body 2 in., tail 1^ in. long. Inside the mother's pouch 

 were nine teats only.'' 



As a representative of the second sub-genus (Metachirus) may be mentioned 

 the quica-opossum (D. opossum), ranging from Mexico to the Argentine. 

 The three representatives of this sub-genus are medium-sized species, with the 

 relative lengths of the hind-toes the same as in the common-opossum — that 

 is to say, the three middle toes are sub-equal in this respect, and considerably 

 exceed the outermost. The fur is short and straight, without any admix- 

 ture of bristles ; and the pouch may be either well developed or rudimental. 

 Of the thick-tailed-opossum {D. crassicmtdata) from Guiana, South Brazil, 

 Uruguay, and Argentina, which is another member of the same sub-genus, 

 Mr. Aplin writes as follows : — "The Cumadr^ja-colorada, as this species is 

 called, is rare in the part of Soriana where I was living, only one having been 

 killed there during my stay so far as I know. It is said by the residents to 

 be excessively savage for so small an animal. Responding to a suggestion, I 

 inquired whether the female had a pouch capable of carrying her young, and 

 one rather sharp and observant jouesiero's boy declared that it had. Although 

 the adults are so savage, a lady of my acquaintance had a young one, taken 

 from the body of its dead mother in the camp south of the Rio Negro in 

 February, which was perfectly tame. It unfortunately shared the fate of so 

 many ladies' pets and was slain by a large cat belonging to a house at which 

 she was staying on her way to the coast, a day or two before I went over 

 there. The fur of this animal is very beautiful. It is of a warm, light chest- 

 nut, paler and yellower on the sides and lower parfs. The upper-parts have 

 a flush on them of what can only be described as crimson." As a matter of 

 fact, this species has no pouch, which in a fully developed condition is 

 present only in the common and quica-opossums. The third sub-genus 

 \Philander) is represented by two South American species of medium size, 

 in which the fourth hind-toe is the longest, while the third and fifth 

 are about equal and next in size, and the second is somewhat the 

 shortest of the four. In both the pouch is rudimental, while externally 

 these species are characterised by their woolly fur and the presence of a dark 

 longitudinal stripe down the middle of the face. A considerable number of 

 small-sized opossums from Central and South America constitute the sub- 

 genus Micoureus^ in which the form is slender, the fur generally straight, 

 although occasionally slightly woolly, and there is no dark face-stripe. The 

 relative lengths of the hind-toes are generally the same as in the last group, 

 but in some cases the fifth digit is not longer than the second. A pouch is 

 always wanting, and the tail is generally longer than the body, and highly 

 prehensile. In the velvety-opossum (£>. velutina) the tail is, however, much 

 shorter, and thereby serves to connect this group with the following one. 

 In the last group (Peramys), which is likewise confined to Sou^h and Central 

 America, and contains about eight very small species, the tail is generally 



