4S0 
DIDELPHYS QUICA. 
Quica Opossum. 
Diilelphys Quica. (Natterer) Temminck, Monographies tie Maun mi logic, 
tom. i. p. 36. 1827. 
“ “ Dksmarkst, Diet, des Sci. Nat. tom. xlvii. p. 387. 
*' “ Wagner, in Schreber’s Saugetliiere Suppl. 109—110 
Heft, p. 42. 
Fur short, dense, and rather harsh to the touch ; general hue of 
the upper parts and sides of the body ashy grey, indistinctly 
pencilled with silvery white, and, on the back, somewhat 
suffused with black ; under parts white: head, on the upper 
surface of a sooty black hue, but with two largish white 
spots, situated rather behind the line of the eyes: ears large, 
oval, and of a brown hue: tail about equal in length to the 
head and body taken together; blackish, excepting at the 
extremity, which is white ; about two inches of the basal 
portion clothed with fur. 
Female with the upper parts of the body of a dusky brown 
colour. 
Inhabits Brazil, Guiana, and Surinam. 
Three male specimens of the D . Quica in the British 
Museum collection can be scarcely said to vary in their 
colouriug or size. Their fur is dense, rather harsh to the 
touch, and by no means closely applied to the skin ; it 
averages at about a quarter of an inch in length. On die 
upper parts and sides of the body the hairs arc grey at die 
root, of a glistening silvery white near the point, and dusky 
at the point, and the general hue produced may he described 
as ashy grey, slightly suffused with blackish, and having at 
the same time a very faint purple tint. On the sides of die 
