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487 
DIDELPHYS PHILANDER. 
The Philander Opossum. 
Didelphis Philander. Linn. Syst. i. p. 72, sp. 2. 1766. 
“ 11 Shreb. Saug. vol. iii. p. 541, PI. 147. 1778. 
“ “ Temm. Monog. de Mammal, vol. i. p. 43, 1827, 
PI. 6 (skeleton). 
“ “ Wagner, Shreb., Saug. Suppl. vol. iii. p. 45. 1842. 
“ Cayopollin. Dbsm. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. tom. ix. p. 147, 
1817. Mammalogie, p. 257. 1820. 
PhilanderMarsupialis 1 . Gray, List of Mammal, in British Museum, 1843, 
p. 101. 
Upper parts of body of a yellowish, rust colour (ashy grey, suffused 
with rusty yellow, in the female) ; under parts yellow ; upper 
surface of head pale silvery grey, but with a slender, dusky, 
longitudinal mark ; region of the eye dusky, and this 
tint extended considerably in front of the eye : tail with 
about one-fifth of its length clothed with fur like that 
on the body ; the remaining, scaly portion, at first brown, then 
clouded, or spotted with brown and yellowish white, and 
entirely of the latter hue at the distal extremity. Ribs very 
broad. 
Inhabits northern parts of South America. 
1 With respect to the Didelphis marsupialis of the older authors, there can 
be no doubt that the descriptions and figures generally refer to one or other of 
the large species allied to the Didelphis Virginiana, or to that animal. Linnaeus 
refers to Seba’s plate and description as his D. marsupialis , and that plate, &c. 
is clearly taken from the animal called D. cancrivora by modern authors, though 
Linnceus notices in his description that the ears are black tipped with white—a 
character found in the D. Virginiana , but, to my experience, never found in D. 
cancrivora. I find no notice in Seba’s account of the ears being tipped with 
white. The D. marsupialis , according to Schreber’s description, must be the 
D. cancrivora of Temminck, but his figure, although copied from Saba s, it 
would appear is coloured from one of the Opossums belonging to the second 
division. On the whole, as there appears to be more than one species con- 
