438 VIVEHINE. OPOSSUM. 
drnpeds ; though the middle claws are far less m 
proportion, the interior ones are double, or both 
covered by a common skin. The colour of this 
species, is a pale yellow brown ; paler and inclining 
to whitish beneath ; and its hair is of a coarser, or 
more harsh appearance than the rest of the small 
opossums ; the ears are rounded ; the tail rather 
long. When viewed in a cursory manner, the 
animal bears a distant resemblance to a pig in 
miniature. 
VlYERIttE opossum. - 
This animal is remarkable for its slender form ; 
and this, together with its sharpened visage and 
long bushy tail, gives it, at first view, the appear- 
ance of one of the weasel tribe, rather than that of 
the opossum. Its general size seems to be that of 
a stoat, measuring about ten inches from nose to 
tail, audits tail about eight inches. It appears, how- 
ever, to vary in size, since different describers 
differ greatly in their accounts. In the work of 
Governor Phillip, (published by Mr. Stockdale, 
in the year 1789 ,) it is said to measure fifteen 
inches from the nose to the tail, tire tail measuring 
about ten inches ; but in Mr. White’s publication, 
the description by Mr. Hunter states the animal 
to be about the size of a rat. The different age 
©f 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 somew hat 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 with a brown one of the 
same size, and differing only in colour. The brown 
variety, is that w hich Mr. Hunter, in the puhlica- 
