DIDELPITYS DORSIGERA. 
Merian’s Opossum. 
Didelphis dorsigera. Linn., Syst. (ed. 12), i. p. 72. 
“ “ Schreber, Suugeth. iii. p. 546, tab. 150. 
“ “ Temminck, Monographies de Maminalogie, tom. i. 
p. 4S. 
Fur short, and of a grey-brown, or brownish yellow hue, on the 
upper parts of the animal, and impure white on the hinder 
parts; eye encircled with dark brown, and this dark tint 
extended along the sides of the muzzle ; the intervening 
space, as well as the forehead, yellow-white : tail distinctly 
longer than the head and body together, and of an uniform 
brown colour; the fur at the base moderately extended. 
Inhabits Surinam. 
Although the Opossums of the section now under con¬ 
sideration differ from most other Marsupialia in having no 
pouch, they agree with the animals of tlieir order in that 
remarkable peculiarity of being comparatively little advanced 
in development at the time of their birth. 
The young, when sufficiently advanced to leave the teats 
of the parent (to which they are at first firmly attached), are 
carried by the parent on the back, where they retain their 
position by means of their prehensile tails, which are entwined 
round the tail of the mother. It is this habit of carrying 
the young on the back which gave rise to the name dorsigera , 
applied by Linneeus to the present species; the habit in 
question being, it was supposed, peculiar to it. 
The present species was described as early as the year 1710, 
by Madame Merian, and is introduced in one of the plates of 
