The opossum is found in all the valleys of the coast; it is about two feet long including the tail, which is as long as the body; the nose is pointed like that of a hog, and has no hair on it from the eyes to the mouth; the ears are thin, without any hair on them, and stand erect; the feet are also naked and small, and it holds its meat with its fore paws, like a monkey; the body is covered with hair, black at the roots and white at the points, which gives it a shady grey colour; the tail is slender and naked, and by it the animal can hang suspended to the branch of a tree. The female brings forth four or five young ones at a time, not larger than mice when first born, and they immediately betake themselves to the pouch under the belly of their mother. The pouch is formed by a fold of the skin, hairy on the outside and covered with a very soft down or fur on the inside; the nipples are so situated, that the young ones can suck them as they are carried about by their mother; when about the size of full grown mice they leave the pouch by an opening in the centre, and bask in the sun, but if any danger threaten them they immediately take refuge in their natural home. I one day caught an old opossum by the tail, when four of her young ones ran out; I chased and captured two of them; they immediately hid themselves by running up the inside of my coat sleeves; I took them home, reared them, and they became perfectly domesticated, were very tame, and would sleep on the same mat with a dog. They feed on fruit or esculents, will eat flesh, and are particularly fond of eggs. The indians esteem them as food, but I never had an opportunity of eating any. The natives sometimes call the opossum _mochilera_, from _mochila_, a knapsack; the indians call it _mucamuca_. The añas of Peru is a species of pole cat, and is nearly the size of a domestic cat; its colour is a deep brown approaching to black, with a line of round white spots extending from the nose to the tail; the head is long, the ears broad and covered with hair, the eyes large with small black pupils, the nose sharp like the opossum; the upper lip is shorter than the lower one, which projects, and the mouth contains twelve incisorial, four canine, and sixteen grinding teeth. The hind legs are longer than the fore, and each foot has five toes, armed with long sharp nails, with which it burrows into the ground, and forms a place of security for its young. When walking it carries its head down, and its tail, which is bushy, is turned on the back like that of a squirrel.