THE VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM. 
267 
dentition is perfect, no less than fifty teeth. The two 
middle incisors, of the upper jaw more particularly, are 
separated from the rest by a slight vacancy, and are 
consequently more prominent ; they are also somewhat 
longer. The canines are strong, compressed, and in- 
curved, the upper being considerably larger than the 
lower. Of the cheek-teeth, the three anterior in each 
jaw are false molars, each forming a simple compressed 
conical point; the remainder are true molars, sur- 
mounted, as in most of the insectivorous groups, by 
sharp-pointed tubercles, but closely approximating in 
their outline and disposition to the lacerators and 
tubercular teeth found in the Civets and neighbouring 
genera. 
In the form of their bodies they also bear a close 
resemblance to the animals just mentioned ; their head 
is long and pointed ; the line of their profile nearly 
straight ; their ears large and naked ; their eyes small, 
but expressive ; their mouth deeply cut and with a 
wide gape ; and their tongues roughened with horny 
papillae. Their tails are long and tapering, covered 
with long hair at the base alone, and with scales 
throughout the remaining part, which is extremely 
flexible and strongly prehensile. Their legs are rather 
short : on the fore feet are five toes, all of them termi- 
nating in strong sharp curved claws ; the hinder feet 
have the thumb separated from the rest, distinctly 
opposable as in the Monkeys, and entirely destitute of 
nail or claw. The claws of the other toes correspond 
exactly with those of the anterior extremities. 
The Opossums are exclusively natives of America, 
and are the only Marsupial animals that exist beyond 
the pale of New Holland and the neighbouring Archi- 
pelagoes. They seem to fill in the New World to a 
certain extent the same station with the Civets of the 
