%'IRGINIAN OPOSSUM. 
her young. 2. In both male and female, the 
first toe of the hind feet has no claws, and is 
separated from the rest, like the thumb in the 
human hand ; while the other toes of the same 
feet are placed near each other, and armed 
■with crooked claws. The first charadler has 
been remarked by some travellers and natura- 
lists; but the second has entirely escaped them. 
It was," adds BufFon, " first observed bv Ed- 
ward Tyson, an English physician. He is 
the only author who has given a good descrip- 
tion of the female ; and, a few years after, Mr. 
Cowper, a celebrated English anatomist, com- 
municated to Tyson the observations which he 
had made on the male. Other authors, and 
particularly the nomenclators, who perpetually 
multiply species without necessjtv, have com- 
mitted a num])er of blunders with regard to 
this animal, which we must endeavour to cor- 
re6l." Accordingly, the Count Dc BulTon 
enters into a long critical discussion ; of mucli 
ingenultv, it must be confessed, but so far 
from proving satisfa6lory, that he is after- 
wards, on farther information, obliged to ac- 
knowledge himself in a very considerable er* 
ror. The fa6l seems to be, that we are all 
more 
