108 
VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM. 
SYNONYMES. 
Virginian Opossum, Pennant, Hist. Quad., vol. ii., p. 18, pi. 63. 
“ “ “ Arctic Zoology, vol. i., p. 73. 
Sarigue des Illinois, Buff., sup. 6. 
Opossum Amsbicanub, D’Azai'a, Quad, du Paraguay. 
Didelpiiis Virginiana, Shaw’s ZooL, vol. i., p. 73. 
Mabsupiall Ameeicandm, Tyson, in Phil. Trans., No. 239, p. 105. 
CowpEB, hid., No. 290, p. 1565. 
Opossum, Catesby’s Carolina, p. 120, fig. e. 
“ Barton’s Facts, Observations and Conjectures relative to the gene- 
ration of the Opossum of N. Am., London, 1809 and 1813. 
Possum, Lawson’s Carolina, p. 120, fig. e. 
D. ViKGiNiANus, Harlan, Fauna, p. 119. 
“ “ Godman, vol. ii., p. 7, fig. 
ViRG. Opossum, Griffith, vol. iii., p. 24. 
“ “ Dekay, Nat. Hist. N. Y., p. 3, fig. 2, pi. 15. 
Opossum, Notes on the generation of theVirginian Opossum, (Didelphis Virginiana,) 
J. Bachman, D. D., Transactions of the Acad, of Nat. Sciences, April, 
1848, p. 40. 
Letter from M. Michel, M.D., on the same subject, Trans. Acad. Nat. 
Sciences, April, 1848, p. 46. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Body, stout and clumsy ; head, long and conical ; snout, pointed : the 
nostrils at the extremity of the long muzzle open on the sides of a protru- 
berant naked and glandulous surface. Ears, large, thin, and membra- 
neous ; mouth, wide, and borders rounded ; jaws, weak ; eyes, placed high 
on the forehead, small, and without external lids, oblique ; moustaches, on 
the sides of the face, and a few over the eye, strong and rigid. The 
tongue is covered with rough papillae. Nails, of moderate length, curved ; 
inner toe on the posterior extremities destitute of a nail and opposable to 
the other toes, thus forming a kind of hand. Tail, (which may be con- 
sidered a useful appendage to the legs in aiding the motions of the ani- 
mal), prehensile and very strong, but capable of involution only on the 
under side, long, round, and scaly, covered with a few coarse hairs for a 
few inches from the base, the remainder with here and there a hair scat- 
tered between. Soles of the hind feet, covered with large tubercles. The 
female is furnished with a pouch containing thirteen mammae arranged 
in a circle, with one in the centre. 
The fur is of two kinds, a soft woolly hair beneath, covered by much 
longer hairs, which are, however, not sufficiently dense to conceal the un- 
der coat. The woolly hair is of considerable length and fineness, especi- 
ally in winter. 
