ICO THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



3 



the eyes, the long pointed nose, the feet and tail, are colored quite 

 dark. The strong, round, slender tail is destitute of hair, but covered, 

 like the beaver's, with scales. But the most peculiar featui-e of this 

 animal is the mammary pocket, or marsupium, formed by a folding-in 

 of the skin on the abdomen. Its character is marked by wonderful 

 cunning and stupidity combined. The daytime it spends in slothful 

 idleness, but prowls about nocturnally seeking for food. Walking or 

 slowly ambling at an awkward gait, it proceeds from j^lace to place, 

 usually following the borders of streams and ponds, often wading 

 where the water is shallow. But its limbs seem best adapted to climb- 

 ing ; the plantigrade, hand-like feet, with thumbs ' opposable to the 

 fingers, and the long, prehensile tail, strongly indicate scansorial habits 

 and arboreal life. Among the trees it manifests astonishing agility, 

 climbing or swinging from branch to branch with perfect safety, and 

 may be seen hanging by one or more of its feet, or by its tail alone, 

 while busily engaged gathering and eating the wild-grapes, or haw, 

 or persimmon, of which it is peculiarly fond, or robbing birds'-nests of 

 their eggs or young. A varied diet suits its omnivorous appetite, and 

 it fares promiscuously on fruits, vegetables, eggs, insects, worms, rep- 

 tiles, small quadrupeds, and birds, often stealing domestic fowls. It 

 commonly hides among vines and branches, in hollow trees or logs, 

 or in holes in the ground. In these places also its nests of grass 

 and leaves are found. In autumn, the opossums become excessively 

 fat, and are then prized for food in the Southern States, especially by 

 the negroes, whose fondness for hunting them and eating their flesh 

 has already exterminated them from many localities where they 

 abounded plentifully before. Their flesh, when cooked, resembles 

 roast-pig. The animal is usually sullen, stupid, and slow, but if at- 

 tacked assumes a terribly fierce attitude, snarls, utters a kind of hiss 

 and low growl, and will often bite ferociously, though at the first blow 

 wall usually feign death, and no amount of torture will make it revive 

 or show a sign of sufiering, but when beaten and left for dead it will 



' In the October "Miscellany " (p. 758) of this Journal, some of the facts concerning 

 my contributions to the myology of the apes and man appeared incorrectly reported. 

 Since the opossum's foot was wrongly referred to as being typical and unlike the hand 

 of man, the mistake may be corrected here. The comparison of man's foot with the 

 opossum's was unfortunate ; the right idea was expressed, but a wrong illustration chosen. 

 The fact is, the opossum is pedhnanons, having an opposable thumb, as was stated in a 

 paper presented at the same time with the above. It has a rather highly-diiferentiated 

 foot, whereas the contrary was supposed. 



Few, if any, animals outside the groups of the quadrumana and the opossum family 

 have the parts of their muscles so specialized that one toe can be used without moving all 

 the others. 



Instead of " one communis muscle," there are several in every typical foot. My pa- 

 pers show that the so-called "proprius" muscles, such as the special extensors of the 

 index, thumb, little finger, etc., which characterize the hands of man and some of the 

 apes, are but parts differentiated off from one or another of the " communis " muscles, 

 and are found as parts of those muscles in lower animals with more typical feet 



