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DIDELPHYS C ALIFORNICA. 
Californian Opossum. 
Hide!phis Califomica. Bennett, Proceedings of the Zoological Society 
for March, 1833, p. 40. 
? “ pruinosa . Wagner, in Wiegmann’s Archiv. 1842, p. 358. 
Fur long, somewhat woolly, and with very long interspersed 
harsher hairs; next the skin the hairs are dirty white, hut 
externally those of the ordinary fur are black, or brown- 
black, and the longer hairs are white ; head brown, with a 
darker mark running through the eye, and a white band 
immediately beneath this: ears black ; tail with nearly the 
whole of the scaly portion white: legs and feet brown- 
black. 
This species agrees with the Did. virginiana and D. Azanr 
in having the long bristly hairs on the tipper parts of the 
body of a white colour; but it differs from both those 
animals in having the upper surface of the head of a nearly 
uniform dusky brown hue; the mesial portion of the head is 
rutlier darker than other ports, if we except the black mark, 
which, commencing considerably in front of the eye, extends 
backwards to the ear. From both the animals mentioned the 
present species differs, moreover, in having the ears entirely 
black: as in the other large species of Opossums just de¬ 
scribed, the fur is of a dirty yellowish white colour next the 
skin, and this pale hue is not perfectly hidden hv the over¬ 
laying dark points of the hairs ; indeed, on the abdomen the 
pale colour is hut little concealed. The somewhat bristly# 
long, interspersed white hairs, arc exceedingly abundant on 
the back of the animal The root of the tail is clothed with 
