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Show 1894.] DIDELPHYIDJE OF S»E.*BEAZIL. 461 adult " Quica " from Brazil safely to Switzerland, feeding it on board the steamer mainly on fruits. The individual was presented to the Basel Zoological Garden. 3. MlCOUREUS GRISEUS. M y collection contains a single specimen of a fine grey Micoureus, somewhat doubtful as regards the species. The dimensions of the dry skin are:-length of body 120 mm., tail 155 mm.; the basilar length of the skull is 32 m m . The colour of the fur (which is notably soft and velvety, much more than in Metachirus quica) is greyish above, with a rufous tone on the shoulders and more bluish in the region of the legs ; pure white on the underside. Distinct blackish face-markings surround the eyes and run forward to the neighbourhood of the nose. There is no white spot above the eye as in the " Quica." The tail is furry at its basal part for about 1 cm., and becomes suddenly naked and scaly on the remainder; its colour is uniformly greyish, and does not show the contrast of black and fleshy, so apparent on the tail of a young " Quica." The number of grey species of Didelphyidae is small, embracing (besides M. quica) Didelphys cinerea, D. grisea, D. velutina, and D. elegans. D. cinerea, which I know principally from the figure given by Burmeister, pi. xii., and the description of Mr. O. Thomas (p. 342 et seq.), is larger and presents other differences. D. velutina (Burmeister, pi. xiv.) differs, as we know by Natterer's type in the Vienna Museum, in having a tail inferior in length to the body, and shows (if Burmeister's figure is approximately correct) a pale circular eye-marking, not running forward to the nose. For some time I believed m y animal to be D. elegans, and I was brought to this idea by Burmeister's pi. xv., showing a small marsupial very similar to m y specimen, and even now I do not consider the question satisfactorily settled. Some doubts arose only when I obtained the work of Mr. Thomas and read his description of D. grisea, a species not cited by Burmeister in his ' Systematische Uebersicht' and only mentioned in a very short note in his ' Erlauterungen' (p. 83) as a form never met with by him. Mr. Thomas gives the following description :- " Fur close, soft, and rather fluffy. General colour above uniform deep grey, with scarcely a tinge of rufous. Face rather pale grey ; the dark eye-markings confined to the front of the eye and comparatively inconspicuous. Ears very large, leafy. Chin, chest, and belly pure sharply-defined white, the line of demarcation, especially on the neck, with a slight rufous or fulvous wash. Pouch absent1. Tail long, slender, tapering, its basal half-inch furry, the remainder practically naked ; grey above, white below." The characters here part, irregularly spotted with pale dark marks of different size. The face-markings are as yet very indistinct. The bright bluish tinge of the scrotum, which is comparatively very large as a rule in Didelphyidas, is also very noticeable. (24/2/94.) 1 M y specimen is a male, therefore I a m in doubt about the pouch. |