82 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



a determinate instinct, which may, surely, be considered as 

 one of the most wonderful that is furnished to us by the 

 science of natural history." 



Those who are aware of the manner of reproduction of 

 the opossum frequently err in claiming that the parent 

 picks up her tiny, immature babies and places them in the 

 pouch, some claiming this is done by the mouth, while oth- 

 ers maintain this act is performed by the paws. More than 

 one hundred years ago, Mr. Barton set down: "It is not 

 true, as has been often asserted, that the mother, with her 

 paws, puts the young ones in the pouch." 



When the young are expelled from the female's body, 

 after a gestation period of 11 days, the babies are not much 

 more than embryos. They weigh about two grains each, 

 but are very much alive and active, for they instinctively 

 crawl about the mother's body until the abdominal pouch 

 is found and entered. Each member of the litter seizes a 

 teat and by a provision of nature the mouth of the baby 

 opossum adheres to the lactate appendage of the parent, 

 and, being in a very imperfect form of development and 

 unable to suckle for the first few weeks of this period, the 

 mother injects her milk into her offsprings' mouths by a 

 special muscle, which compresses the lacteal glands. In 

 other words, she "pumps" sustenance into her young. 



When about six weeks old the eyes open, the mouths of 

 the young become detached from teats, after which they 

 venture out and survey the world into which they have been 

 so strangely born. The first excursions are made usually 

 from the pouch to the mother's back, the young climbing to 

 her hair and scrambling around her body. The family pre- 

 sents a droll sight when the parent animal arches her tail 

 over her back and the little ones twine their prehensile tails 

 about the mother's, hanging head down with fore feet 

 grasping the hair of the parent animal's back. A week or 

 two passes before the young leave the mother's back for 

 their first excursion on land. As the opossum litters more 

 than once a year, it has been demonstrated that she will 

 receive attention from the male before she has fully raised 

 her first litter. 



