Habitat, Valparaiso, Chile, (October.)
This little Opossum, which is the only species I am acquainted with from the west side of the Cordillera, was exhibited at one of the scientific meetings of the Zoological Society, and its characters were pointed out by Mr. James Reid, who proposed for it the specific name of hortensis,[[47]] a name which was given from the circumstance that in Mr. Darwin’s notes it is stated that a small Opossum was found in a garden at Maldonado. These notes however refer to the Didelphis brachyura. The skull of this animal is figured in Plate 35. Fig. 5, a, represents the upper side; 5, b, the under side; and 5, c, is the side view. Fig. 5, d, is the lower jaw, and 5, e, is the same magnified. The length of the skull is 14½ lines; width, 8 lines; length of palate, 7¼ lines; inter-orbital space, 2½ lines; length of ramus of lower jaw, 10½ lines. In the palate are two long openings which commence opposite the posterior false molar, and terminate opposite the hinder portion of the penultimate true molar: the incisive foramina are nearly one line in length. On the posterior portion of the palate there are four other foramina, one on each side near the posterior molar, and one on either side the mesial line, behind the large palatine openings above mentioned.
“These little animals frequent the thickets growing on the rocky hills, near Valparaiso. They are exceedingly numerous, and are easily caught in traps baited either with cheese or meat. The tail appeared to be scarcely at all used as a prehensile organ; they are able to run up trees, with some degree of facility. I could distinguish in their stomachs the larvæ of beetles.”—D.
4. Didelphis brachyura.
Plate XXII.
Didelphis brachyura, Auct.
D. vellere brevi, corporis suprà cinereo, flavo lavato; lateribus capitis, corporisque, et partibus inferioribus rufescenti-flavis, gulâ et abdomine pallidioribus; caudâ brevi.
Description.—Head large; canine teeth very large; ears rather small; tail short; rather more than half the length of the body; fur short and crisp; the back and upper surface of the head ashy gray, grizzled with yellowish white; the sides of the head and body, and under parts rusty yellow, rather paler on the belly than on other parts, and of a deeper hue on the rump and cheeks; the eye is encircled with rusty yellow; feet yellowish; tail clothed with short stiff hairs, and exhibiting scales, brownish above, and dirty yellowish white beneath—a small naked space beneath, at the tip, of about two lines in length. Fur of the back grayish at the base, that on the belly uniform; ears clothed with minute yellowish white hairs.
| In. | Lines. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Length | from nose to the root of tail | 6 | 0 |
| from nose to ears | 1 | 6 | |
| of tail | 2 | 8 | |
| of tarsus (claws included) | 0 | 8¾ | |
| of ear | 0 | 3¾ |
Habitat, Maldonado, La Plata, (June.)
Never having seen a good figure of this animal, I have thought it desirable to introduce it in the plates of this work.