THE PHILANDER OPOSSUM. 
480 
preserved in the National Collection ; this specimen is stuffed, 
and. unfortunately, has lost its ears. It measures— 
Inches. Lines. 
14 0 
14 0 
3 0 
2 3 
3 1 
1 8 
From tip of nose to root of tail 
Tail, about 
Of which the hairy portion is 
From nose to ear 
Forefoot ... 
Hind foot 
In the same collection are some specimens of the D. 
Opossum , together with a second male Philander, which, 
being preserved in spirits, affords us a favourable opportunity 
of comparing the proportions of the two animals. The most 
striking difference which presented itself upon laying the 
two species side by side, was that observable, as already 
noticed, in the porportions of the head. With the body but 
one-third of an inch longer in D. Opossum than in D. 
Philander , the head was nearly three-quarters of an inch 
longer. Other differences were more or less marked: thus 
the tail of the Z). Opossum was considerably shorter and 
thicker than in the Philander , and differed, moreover, in 
having the scales larger, and consequently more distinct: 
when the limbs are compared, the proportions of length and 
thickness are reversed in the two animals, the legs being 
shorter and stouter in the Philander than in the D. Opossum 1 . 
In the latter animal the vertical groove on the naked muffle 
is moderately indented, and, besides the notch formed by the 
termination of this groove on the lower edge of the muffle, 
there are two other notches, one on each side of the mesial 
indentation. In D. Philander the nasal groove is more 
deeply impressed, and there are two distinct notches on either 
1 Judging from stuffed specimens, the shorter and thicker legs will also dis¬ 
tinguish the D. Philander from the D. nudicaudata and the D. Quica. 
