4f76 MOLUCCA OPOSSUM. 
closing- the pouch so strongly as to make it ex- 
tremely difficult to open it by the hand ; nor will 
any torture compel the animal to loosen it. This 
power of strongly closing the pouch is performed 
by certain bones and muscles which Nature has 
provided for that purpose. These were observed 
and described by the celebrated Cowper, in the last 
century, as also by Dr. Tyson. The female, when 
ready to produce her young, is said to make her- 
self a nest of dry grass, in some bush, near the 
root of a tree. 
A variety of this species is sometimes seen, in 
which the back is of a deep brown. This is the 
Didelphis Molucca of Gmelin s edition of the Sys- 
tema Naturas of Linnasus. 
MOLUCCA OPOSSUM. 
Didelphis Marsupialis. D.fusca, cauda nuda. 
Brown O. with naked tail. 
D. mammis octo intra abdomen. Lin. Syst. Nat, Gmel. p. 105. 
Philander Amboinensis atro-spadiceus in dorso, in ventre ex al- 
bido cinereo-flavicans, maculis supra oculos obscure .fuscis. 
Briss. Quadr. 201. 
Philander Orientahs foem. Seb. mus. i. p. 61. t. 38./. i. 
Molucca Opossum. Fcnnant Qiiadr. 2. p. 20. 
Sarigue, ou I'Opossum. Buff, 10, p. 279, pL 45, 46. 
This, which is a larger species than the for- 
mer, seems to have been first described and figured 
by Seba, in his work intituled Thesaurus Rerum 
Naturalium. It is of a thinner or more slender 
