OPOSSUMS AND THEIR YOUNG. 



149 



OPOSSUMS AND TIIEIR YOUNG. 



By Prof. W. S. BARNAKD. 



IN the "Perfect Description of Virginia," 1649, the opossum was 

 noticed as " a beast that hath a bagge under her belly, into which 

 she takes her young ones, if at any time affrighted, and carries them 

 away." Lawson says : " She is the wonder of all animals. The fe- 

 male doubtless breeds her young at her teals, for I have seen them 

 stick fast thereto, when they have been no bigger than a small rasp- 

 berry, and seemingly inanimate. She has a pouch or false belly wherein 

 she carries her young, after they are from those teats, till they can shift 

 for themselves. ... If a cat has nine lives, this creature surely has 

 nineteen; for if you break every bone in their skin, and mash their 

 skull, leaving them for dead, you may come an hour after, and they 

 will be gone quite away. . . . Their fur is not esteemed nor used, save 

 that the Indians spin it into girdles and garters." Aside from its cu- 

 rious appearance and habits, the opossum (Fig. 1) possesses an unusual 

 interest from being our typical, and the only North American repre- 

 sentative of that large order of peculiar mammals known as marsupi- 

 als. Its mode of reproduction long remained a mystery, and even at 



Fig. 1. Common Virginia Opossum (.Didelphys Vlrginiana). 



this day almost nothing is known of its develojjment, which, when 

 thoroughly understood, must explain the origin of the pouch and other 

 parts characterizing marsupials, and their relationship to allied groups. 

 Having had some experience with these animals, and examined seven 

 sets of young ones,' at important stages of development, I think it 

 may be worth while to record some of the observations made. 



With the general pi-oportions of (but a longer nose than) the com- 

 mon rat, almost the size of a domestic cat, it presents a rather disa- 

 greeable appeai-ance and odor. A dense coat of light-gray wool, with 

 scattered long hairs interspersed, covers frhe body, while the short ears, 



' Tlie writer is indebted to Prof. Wilder, of Cornell University, and to Mr. Alexander 

 Agassiz, Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 

 for specimens kindly loaned him for examination. 



