Never having seen a good figure of this animal, I have thought it
desirable to introduce it in the plates of this work.
The _Didelphis brachyura_ is closely allied to the _D. tricolor_ of
authors, but in that species the upper parts of the body are nearly
black; the sides of the head and body are of a deep rusty red tint, and
the under parts are almost white.
“Was caught by some boys digging in a garden. Its intestines were full
of the remains of insects, chiefly ants and others of the Hemipterous
order.”—D.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 1._
_Desmodus D’Orbignyi._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 2._
_Phyllostoma Grayi._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia. Pl. 3._
_Vespertilio Chiloensis._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 4._
_Canis antarcticus._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia. Pl. 5._
_Canis Magellanicus._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 6._
_Canis fulvipes._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 7._
_Canis Azaræ._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 8._
_Felis Yagouaroundi._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 9._
_Felis Pajeros._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 10._
_Delphinus Fitz-Royi._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 11._
_Mus longicaudatus._ _Mus gracilipes._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 12._
_Mus bimaculatus._ _Mus elegans._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 13._
_Mus flavescens._ _Mus arenicola._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 14._
_Mus brachiotis._ _Mus Magellanicus._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 15._
_1 Mus Renggeri._
_2 —— obscurus._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia. Pl. 16._
_Mus longipilis._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 17._
_Fig. 1 Mus xanthorhinus._ _2 Mus nasutus._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 18._
_Mus tumidus._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia. Pl. 19._
_Mus Braziliensis._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 20._
_Mus micropus._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 21._
_Mus griseo-flavus._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 22._
_Mus xanthopygus._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 23._
_Mus Darwinii._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 24._
_Mus Galapagoensis._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 25._
_Mus fuscipes._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 26._
_Reithrodon Cuniculcides._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 27._
_Reithrodon Chinchilloides._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 28._
_Abrocoma Bennettii._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 29._
_Abrocoma Cuvieri._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 30._
_Didelphis crassicaudata._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 31._
_Didelphis elegans._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 32._
_Didelphis brachyura._
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Plate 33._
_G.R. Waterhouse. & C.M. Curtis_
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Plate 34._
_G.R. Waterhouse_ _J. Swaine_
]
[Illustration:
_Mammalia Pl. 35._
_Drawn by C. H. Curtis._
]
-----
Footnote 1:
The palatine foramina are accidentally omitted—see description.
Footnote 2:
Voy. Amer. Merid. t. 8.
Footnote 3:
See his memoir “Sur quelques anomalies du système dentaire dans les
mammifères,” published in the “Annales Françaises et Etrangères
d’Anatomie et de Physiologie,” No. 6, pl. IX. fig. 2.
Footnote 4:
Magazine of Zoology and Botany, No. 12.
Footnote 5:
“Annales des Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle,” tom. xv. p. 176.
Footnote 6:
Journal Historique d’un Voyage fait aux Iles Malouines, tom. ii. p.
459.
Footnote 7:
Azara has not described this animal, which circumstance alone would
render it probable that it is not an inhabitant of Paraguay or La
Plata. The two Foxes mentioned by him are the Aguará-guaza, (_Canis
jubatus_, Auct.) a very large kind of fox (a strangely exaggerated
description of this animal is given by Falkner) of which I could not
obtain a specimen; and the Aguará-chay, or _Canis Azaræ_.
Footnote 8:
Molina, Compendio de la Historia del Reyno de Chile, vol. i. p. 330
and 332.
Footnote 9:
I am indebted to Mr. Ogilby, who visited the Prince’s collection, for
a description from the specimens of _C. Azaræ_ therein preserved. In
this description the tip of the tail is said to be black.
Footnote 10:
Considering the great difference of climate and other conditions
between the hot and wooded country of Paraguay, and the desolate
plains of Patagonia, one is led to suspect that the _Canis Azaræ_ of
La Plata and Patagonia, which wanders about by day, and inhabits
burrows instead of heaps of straw, may turn out to be a different
species from the Agouará-chay of Azara, which is nocturnal in its
habits, and lives in thick coverts.
Footnote 11:
In measuring the species of Mammalia, I almost invariably, when
wishing to give the length, measure from the tip of the nose _along
the curve of the back_ to the root of the tail. In the Ruminantia of
course this plan is not desirable, but in other Mammals I have found
it most convenient. If we take a Cat, for instance, and curve the body
in whatever way we please, we find the length (taken in the way just
mentioned) always the same. Whereas, if we take a straight line (as
many naturalists do) the length will vary according to the position of
the animal.
Footnote 12:
I must refer the reader to my journal for some account of the habits
of the jaguar and puma, which being well known animals, and the facts
that I mention having little scientific interest, I have not thought
it worth while to repeat them here.
Footnote 13:
D’Orbigny says, (vol. ii. p. 69,) that all the species of the genus
have this habit.
Footnote 14:
Figures 47 and 48 of M. Cuvier’s work represent horns so unlike either
of those brought over by Mr. Darwin, that I cannot help suspecting
they belong to some other species of stag.
Footnote 15:
The MS. name of _M. decumanoïdes_, which I had applied to this animal,
has been changed, in consequence of my having seen a different
species, with the same name attached, in the museum of the India
House.
Footnote 16:
The great Bandicoot rat of India, (_Mus giganteus_, of Hardwicke,)
ought, perhaps, to be added to the species above enumerated; and I
strongly suspect several catalogued species will prove but varieties
of this animal.
Footnote 17:
See Proceedings of the Zoological Society for February 14th, 1837, p.
19.
Footnote 18:
As I shall have occasion to use the terms _moderate_, _long_, _short_,
_large_, &c. it may be well to state that I take the common mouse,
(_Mus Musculus_,) as my standard of comparison. The ears, feet, tail,
length of the fur, general proportions, &c. are in that animal what I
term moderate.
Footnote 19:
A long tarsus is generally accompanied by a proportionately long tail.
I presume that those Mice which have long tarsi are in the habit of
making great leaps, and that in these leaps, the tail serves to steady
and balance the body.
Footnote 20:
In _Mus leucopus_ of North America the tarsus is hairy beneath, and in
the character of the teeth this animal also agrees with the species
above mentioned.
Footnote 21:
The dimensions given in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society were
taken from a younger specimen than those here described, and there is
an error in the length of the tail there given, which should be 1–10
instead of 2—10.
Footnote 22:
In _Mus longipilis_ and _M. brachiotis_ may be perceived an approach
to this elongated form of the muzzle.
Footnote 23:
I am sorry to say the artist has not drawn this skull with his usual
fidelity, a circumstance which I did not perceive until it was too
late to make any alteration: it is too large, and the incisors are
represented as projecting forwards too much; they are in the original
so nearly at right angles with the upper surface of the skull that but
a very small portion of them is seen, when it is viewed, as
represented at fig. 3, _a_.
Footnote 24:
It is not easy to measure the _width_ of the ears in these animals:
upon measuring with a thread over the curve of the outer side I have
found the width of the ears of the present animal to be as above
given,—the dimension slightly exceeding that stated in the Proceedings
of the Zool. Soc.
Footnote 25:
Ρειθρος, a channel; Οδον, a tooth.
Footnote 26:
The tail is imperfect.
Footnote 27:
They are naked, but I suspect the hair has been rubbed off.
Footnote 28:
I am acquainted with seven North American Species of _Muridæ_, all of
which possess the dentition of _Hesperomys_.
Footnote 29:
Ἐσπερος, West, and Μυς.
Footnote 30:
I am acquainted with only one exception, and that is in the genus
_Castor_. In the genus _Ondatra_, the descending ramus is but slightly
twisted outwards, but in all the other _Arvicolidæ_, whose crania I
have examined, it is remarkably so, and in the genera _Spalax_ and
_Geomys_, where this character is carried to the extreme, the
descending ramus projects from the alveolus of the long inferior
incisors, in the form of a rounded and almost horizontal plate.
Footnote 31:
In aged individuals of some of the species of _Arvicolidæ_, the molar
teeth possess short roots. In a skull of _Ondatra_ now before me I
find all the molars divided at the base into two portions, which in
all probability would have formed solid roots had the animal lived
longer.
Footnote 32:
See Proceedings of the Zoological Society for April 9th, 1839, p. 61.
Footnote 33:
Azara’s Voyages dans l’Amerique Meridionale, vol. i. p. 324.
Footnote 34:
Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol. ii. p. 84.
Footnote 35:
Azara Voyage dans l’Amerique Meridionale, vol. i. p. 324.
Footnote 36:
Compendio de la Hist. Nat. del Reyno de Chile, vol. i. p. 343.
Footnote 37:
Ἁβρος, soft; Κομη, hair.
Footnote 38:
There is a wide difference between the present animals and the
_Arvicolidæ_ in the form of the occipital condyles: the same
difference is also observable between _Echimys_ and _Mus_. The
_Octodontidæ_ in fact have the same form of condyles as the
Chinchillas and Cavies. In this and many other characters the last
mentioned animals evince an affinity to the _Leporidæ_.
Footnote 39:
I have not had an opportunity of examining the skull of _Abrocoma
Bennettii_.
Footnote 40:
This nail no doubt is used to cleanse the fur, and the bristly hairs
may also assist in the operation; the two small toes of the Kangaroo’s
hind foot are used for the same purpose.
Footnote 41:
The skull is, unfortunately, imperfect, the hinder portion is injured,
and the arches which enclosed the ant-orbital openings are broken.
Footnote 42:
Azara ‘Voyages dans l’Amerique Meridionale,’ vol. i. p. 316.
Footnote 43:
See Proceedings of the Zoological Society for April, 1839, p. 61.
Footnote 44:
Azara, Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale, vol. i. p. 318.
Footnote 45:
Azara, Quadrupeds of Paraguay.
Footnote 46:
Voyage de La Coquille. Partie Zoologique, vol. i. p. 168.
Footnote 47:
See Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for January, 1837,
p. 4.; its characters were not published.
------------------------------------------------------------------------