*170 
DIDELPHYS AZAK/E. 
Azara's Opossum. 
(Plate 18. fig. 2). 
Didelphis Azarcp. Temminck, Monogr. de Mammnlogie, tom. i. p. 30. 
“ “ Waterhouse, Nat. Library (Marsupialia), toI. xi. 
p. 83, PL I. 
14 aurita. Pr. Maxim, Ikitr. ii. 392. 
Micourdpremier. Azara, Quad, dc Paraguay, i. p. 244. 
Fur long nud loose, suffused with blnck; head white, with a 
central hlack streak running backwards from the forehead, 
and a streak on each side running through the eye; ears 
white, more or less clouded with blnck at the base ; legs and 
feet black ; basal half of the naked portion of tail also black, 
the terminal half white : verv Ion" white hairs arc inter- 
9 O 
spersed with those of the ordinary fur on the body. 
Inhabits Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, &c. 
Didelphys Azariv greatly resembles the Common Opossum 
of North America, hut may be distinguished by the three 
distinct black marks on tho head, and by .its longer tail. The 
head and neck are white; the mesial bluck stripe commences 
between tbe eyes, and is at first narrow, but as it approaches 
the back part of the head it becomes broader, and on the 
occiput it is much dilated ; the lateral stripe commences 
considerably in front of the eye, and encloses the eye as it 
passes backwards almost to the ear; this latter is tolerably 
large, ovate, and sometimes entirely white, but usually 
clouded with black at the base The bristly hairs of tin 
moustaches are very long; those nearest the mouth are white, 
and the remainder are black ; a few similar long bristly lmiis 
spring from above the eye, and there is a small tuft of long 
hairs on the cheeks The throat and chest are yellowish, or 
