NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 87 



cany as I could wish for, and left me free to look out for other 

 game. The water was deep, sometimes over my horse's withers, 

 but the bottom being comparatively free from mud, we moved 

 about quite easily. Presently a nest attached to some reeds caught 

 my eye, and at once announced itself as a novelty. It was 

 spherical in shape, six or seven inches in diameter, constructed 

 of dry rushes and water grasses, and suspended about a foot 

 above the water. No aperture being visible, I began to remove 

 the upper part of the nest, and was considerably surprised on 

 finding its occupant to be a Yellow Opossum. It immediately 

 sprung from the nest, and seemed to run along the surface of the 

 water for several yards before plunging in. This, however, it 

 effected by grasping the rushes just at the surface of the water, 

 though they grew two or three inches apart, and using both fore 

 and hind feet with such marvellous celerity as to give the above- 

 mentioned appearance. On being pursued till it came to a channel 

 of open water, it took to swimming — not so fast but what I 

 managed to overtake it, when fuffing angrily at me once or twice, 

 it dived like an Otter and disappeared. On the same occasion I 

 found a good many similar nests, and have since continued to do 

 so. All present the same characteristics — varying in size according 

 to that of the occupant, from a few inches to over a foot in 

 diameter; built loosely, but sufficiently strong and thick to sustain 

 and hide the inmate. Where the opening is I never could 

 ascertain, and am inclined to think that the Opossum simply 

 pushes its way in somewhere in the side, curling itself into a ball 

 as it does so, and drawing the aperture roughly together again. 

 The trick of running among the rushes I have often seen repeated, 

 and its swimming and diving powers almost equal those of the 

 Otter. 



On the ground the Yellow Opossum progresses more rapidly 

 than its black and white relative, though easily run down on foot, 

 and at bay is rather more disposed to be aggressive. That feigning 

 of death (which some naturalists now believe to be a temporary 

 and involuntary paralyzation of all the faculties through fear), 

 characteristic of all the family, and so strongly shown in the other 

 species, is by no means so fully developed in this one. Neither is it 

 quite so tenacious of life as the others. 



The Yellow Opossum is, I am glad to say, not so highly odori- 

 ferous as its darker relative, but has the same style of voice — a 



