Seba. It is still larger than the preceding animal, and appears to have broader ears, and a longer and more slender tail. Its colour is darker, its fur harsher or coarser, and over each eye is a dusky spot. It feeds, according to Seba, on fruits, and is a native of Amboina. The individual represented by Seba was a female.
Mr. Pennant very properly observes, that the Count de Buffon seems to have been unacquainted with the Virginian Opossum, and has figured the Indian Opossum or D. marsupialis, imagining it to have been the Virginian species; to which his account of its manners, and the synonyms which he has collected, refer. It may be proper to observe here that great ambiguity and confusion seems still to prevail among writers on natural history with respect to the different species of Opossums.
MEXICAN OPOSSUM.
- Didelphis Cayopollin. D. cauda corpore longiore, marsupio nulo, orbitarum margine nigro. Lin. Syst. Nat. Gmel. p. 106.
- Brown opossum, with tail longer than the body, and the eyes surrounded with a blackish border.
- Mus Africanus Cayopollin dictus. Seb. mus. 1. p. 49. t. 31. f. 3.?
- Cayopollin. Buff. 10. p. 350. pl. 55.
- Mexican Opossum. Pennant Quadr. 2. p. 24.
The Cayopollin or Mexican Opossum has large anguar, naked, transparent ears, thickish snout, and large whiskers. Its colour above is a brownish or tawny ash-colour, pale grey or whitish beneath: the face is also whitish, with a dark line
