478 MEXICAN OPOSSUM. 
Seba. It is still larger than the preceding ani- 
mal, and appears to have broader ears, and a 
longer and more slender tail. Its colour is darker, 
its fur harsher or coarser, and over each eye is 
a dusky spot. It feeds, according to Seba, on 
fruits, and is a native of Amboina. The indi- 
vidual represented by Seba was a female. 
Mr. Pennant very properly observes, that the 
Count de Buffon seems to have been unacquainted 
with the Virginian Opossum, and has figured the 
Indian Opossum or D. marsupialis, imagining it to 
have been the Virginian species ; to which his ac- 
count of its manners, and the synonyms which he 
has collected, refer. It may be proper to observe 
here that great ambiguity and confusion seems still 
to prevail among writers on natural history with 
respect to the different species of Opossums. 
MEXICAN OPOSSUM. 
Didelphis Cayopollin. D, cauda corf ore longiorej marsupio nulloj 
orhitarum margine nigro. Lin. Syst. Nat. Gmel. p. io6. 
Brown Opossum, with tail longer than the body, and the eyes 
surrounded with a blackish border. 
Mus Africanus Cayopollin dictus, Seh. mm, i.p. 49. t, 31./*. 3.? 
Cayopollin. Buff. 10, p. ^^o. pU 
Mexican Opossum, Pennant Quadr. 2. p. 24. 
The Cayopollin or Mexican Opossum has large 
angular, naked, transparent ears, thickish snout, 
and large whiskers. Its colour above is a brown- 
ish or tawny ash-colour, pale grey or whitish be- 
neath : the face is also whitish, with a dark line 
