M. de la Borde has sent me an account of three opossums, which he
kept in a cask at Cayenne; in most particulars it agrees with the
description already given; he says they are very easily tamed, and
feed upon fish, flesh, bread, &c. that those he had possessed no
disagreeable smell, but that there are two species, the one which has
so strong an odour as to be called stinking by the inhabitants, and
that their flesh is not good to eat.
M. de Vosmaër, to his description of the flying squirrel, has added a
note, in which he says, "the _coes-coes_ is the _bosch_ of the East
Indies, the _philandre_ of Seba, and the _didelphiè_ of Linnæus. M.
de Buffon has confined this animal to the new world, and positively
denies its existence in the East Indies; but I can assure that learned
naturalist that Valentin and Seba said no more than the truth, in
affirming they were common to both Asia and America, for I have had a
male and female sent me from the East Indies, and Dr. Schlosser, at
Amsterdam received one of the same species from Amboyna. The principal
difference between those of the East and West Indies is in the colour
of the hair, the male of the former being of a yellowish white, and
the female a little darker, with a brown line on the back, and their
ears are less than those of the latter. The heads also of the West
India species are much shorter than those of the East." I have not
the smallest reason to doubt M. Vosmaër's receiving two animals from
the East Indies, under the name of _coes-coes_, but am of opinion the
differences which he points out are sufficient to induce us not to
consider them the same species as the opossums. I, however, confess the
justice of his observation upon my making the three philandres of Seba
the same animal, when, in fact, the third is a different species, and
found in the Philippine islands, and possibly in many parts of the East
Indies, where it is called _coes-coes_, or _cous-cous_. Christopher
Barchewitz gives a description of this animal found in the island of
Lethy, and from the similarity it plainly appears, that the East India
_cuscus_ is of the same genus as the American opossum; but that is no
proof of their being of the same species; and I am still of opinion,
that the animals of one continent will not be found in the other,
unless they have been transported thither. I do not mean to deny the
possibility of the same climates in the two continents producing some
animals of exactly the same species, provided other circumstances were
the same; I am not, however, treating here of possibilities, but of
general facts, of which we have given many instances in our enumeration
of animals peculiar to the two continents; and, upon the whole, I am
inclined to consider the coes-coes of the East Indies as an animal
whose species approaches very near to that of the opossums of America,
but that they have similar differences, to those which are observable
between the jaguar and leopards, which of all animals peculiar to
the southern climates of the two continents, without being the same
species, come the nearest to each other.