510 
DIDELPHYS ELEGANS. 
surroundecl with black ; tail about equal to the bead and 
body in length, and usually very thick ; feet small. 
Inhabits Chili. 
The lur of this little animal is long, and remarkably soft, 
and composed of hairs of one kind only ; presenting none of 
that woolly or cotton-like texture so generally found in the 
small Opossums; the hairs on the back are of a darkish 
slate-grey next the skin, and annulated near the point with 
ash colour, and sometimes with yellowish, and tipped with 
rusty black ; on the sides of the body they are also of a deep 
slate-grey at the root, but at the point they are of a delicate 
yellow tint, or sometimes of a deep cream colour; on the 
under parts of the body the hairs are of a pure white colour 
throughout their whole length. The general tint of the 
upper parts varies somewhat, being sometimes ashy grey, 
slightly suffused with black along the middle of the back, and 
sometimes yellowish ash colour, suffused with brown. The 
white of the under parts is separated by a tolerably well 
defined line from the darker hue of the upper, and extends 
about half way up the sides of the body; the flanks, imme¬ 
diately above the white parts, are always more or less tinted 
with yellow. The head is rather short; the ears tolerably 
large, and of a greyish brown hue, but pale at the root; they 
are clothed throughout with very minute hairs: a broadish 
black ring encircles the eye, and the sides of the muzzle are 
suffused with blackish. There is hut one indentation on the 
lower margin of the muffle, on either side of the mesial 
groove. The legs and feet are white; the latter are smaller 
than usual. The tail is remarkably thick in most of die 
specimens which have come under my notice, but I have seen 
some in which it was scarcely thicker in proportions than in 
most other Opossums; when incrassated the thickest part is 
