491 
VIVERRINE OPOSSUM. 
Didelphis Viverrina. D. nigra, alho maculata^ cauda 'villosa, 
Var. D.fusca, immaculata, cauda villosa. 
Black O. spotted with white^ with villose tail. 
The Tapoa Tafa, or Tapha. White's Journ. p. 28 ij 28^. 
Spotted Opossum ? Phillip's wy, to Bot. Bay, p. 147. 
This animal is remarkable for its slender fornix, 
and this^ together with its sharpened visage and 
long brushy tail, gives it, at first view, the appear- 
ance of one of the Weesel tribe rather than that 
of an Opossum. Its general size seems to be 
that of a Stoat, measuring about ten inches from 
nose to tail; and the tail itself about eight 
inches. It appears, however, to vary in size, 
since different describers differ greatly in their 
accounts. In the work of Governor Phillip 
(pubhshed by Mr. Stockdale in the year 1789):, 
it is said to measure about fifteen inches from 
the nose to the tail; the tail measuring about ten 
inches; but, in Mr. White's pubhcation, the de- 
scription, by Mr. Hunter, states the animal to 
be about the size of a' rat. The different age 
of the specimens examined may account for 
these discrepances. The colour of the whole 
animal is a deep glossy black, the whole body 
and outsides of the limbs being spotted with 
pretty numerous large and somewhat irregular 
patches of white. If, however, we admit Mr. 
Hunter s idea on this subject, the black and white 
animal just described is of the same species 
