53° Hi ft ory of ANIMALS. 
quills, not the long ones, that the world fuppofes, and too many who ought to have 
known better, affert, that the creature throws off, by way of darts, when it is at¬ 
tacked. There is no truth in the account j the creature has no power of difchargina; 
any of them, nor do they fei ve for any other purpofe than the fpines of our common 
hedge-hog, that is, to defend it againfl other animals, which attempt to feize on it with 
their mouths. 
This fpecies is a native of many parts of the Eaft, but few of the writers on 
quadrupeds have been acquainred with it. The Pedro de Porco, or famous Porcupine 
Bezoar, is taken from the gall-bladder of this fpecies, and is not properly a Bezoar 
though honoured with that name. 
D I D E L P H I S. 
T HE fore-teeth of the upper jaw of the Didelphis are two obtufe, and four co¬ 
nic, on each fide : Thofe of the lower jaw are eight, and very fmall; the ca¬ 
nine teeth on each fide are three. 
Didelphis mammis intra abdomen . 
The Didelphis , with the paps within the abdomen . 
This is a confiderably large, and an extreamly lingular, animal; it’s length, from 
the extremity of the nofe to the rump, is about fifteen inches $ it’s tail is equal in 
length to the whole body the head is long, narrow, and acute, and has much of the 
appearance of that of the hog’s j the ears are an inch and a half long, an inch in 
breadth, and obtufe : the eyes are large, but not prominent j the mouth opens to a 
confiderable width; the nofe is, as it were, truncated and obtufe; the noflrils are 
large, and there are a number of long, black whifkers, both about the nofe, and on 
the fide of the head, beyond and under the eyes : the legs are long and robuff j the 
feet are large; the toes long and flender, and the claws fharp, long, and crooked. 
The creature is covered with a double fur; a longer, which is thin, and com¬ 
ped of elegant dark brown gloffy hairs, confiderably thick and rigid j a fhorter, 
which is very thick-fet, and is of a pale brown colour, and very foft and downy : the 
bodd is flender, rounded, and naked, like that of the rat, and is camellated on the fur- 
face in the fame manner, as in that animal 5 it is dark-coloured toward the bafe, but of 
a whitifh-brown toward the extremity. 
The fkin of the belly in the female is loofe and large, and there is an aperture in 
it, at which it occafionally takes in the young. It was at one time fuppofed that the 
young, in this fpecies, were received into the uterus, or at lead; into the cavity of the 
creature’s body, but that is without all foundation. They are only taken into a ca¬ 
vity formed by nature between thefe two membranes, and preferved from all fort of 
dangers there. ’ 1 
This is a native of many parts of North America. Authors call it the Poffum and 
Opoffum. 
Didelphis mammis extra abdomen . 
The Didelphis , with the teats without the abdomen . 
This is fmaller than the Opoffum, and it’s legs fhorter, by which advantages, toge¬ 
ther with the likenefs of the tail to the rat-kind, it has milled the few authors, who 
have been acquainted with it, to rank it among the rat-kind : the head is of an oval 
figure, but a little depreffed, and acute at the fnout j the eyes are large, and they Hand 
very prominent: the ears are fhort and obtufe 5 the opening of the mouth is large, and 
the teeth are moderately long and fharp t the back is flefhy ; th£ legs are rebuff, and 
the creature runs and climbs in an uncommon manner with them. 
This 
