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THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



very good imitation of the rattle of 

 the venomous species. As I continued 

 to follow the snake the rattling was re- 

 peated so often that I was half inclined 

 to the belief that it intentionally placed 

 its Muttering tail against the dried 

 leaves on the ground in order to imi- 

 tate the sound made by a rattlesnake 

 and thereby to frighten away its 

 enemy. I have since noticed that sev- 

 eral of our common harmless snakes 

 have this same habit of fluttering the 

 tail when excited. 



The list of animals that make such 

 mechanical, drumming sounds, in order 

 one way or another to promote their 

 well being, will be seen to be of con- 

 siderable length and to include species 

 of widely separated classes. It is an in- 

 teresting accomplishment and the 

 naturalist who is so fortunate as to live 

 in the country or who can take occa- 

 sional rambles through the woods and 

 fields will be interested in looking for 

 recruits to enlarge the corps of drum- 

 musicians as given here. 



Opossums, Moving Northward, Are 

 Found in Connecticut. 



BY GEORGE W. LOCKWOOD, LONG RIDGE, 

 COXX. 



During the past year that rather 

 cute little animal, the opossum, has 

 been brought forward into the lime 

 light of publicity in a degree hitherto 

 unknown. By some it is prominent as 

 furnishing the entree to a Taft dinner ; 

 by others it is regarded as an animal 

 peculiar to the South. To a compara- 

 tive few it is known that the opossum 

 has of late years wandered as far 

 north as Connecticut, but such is the 

 fact. As a buyer of raw furs during 

 the winter season,, I have had an op- 

 portunity of following its movements 

 in this section to better advantage than 

 most persons. Thinking the readers 

 of The Guide to Nature; might be 

 interested I hereby present them with 

 the results of my observations. 



It is about twelve or thirteen years 

 ago since I first bought an opossum 

 <>f a Connecticut trapper, a man named 

 Hawley, who lived just outside New 

 Canaan. Needless to say it was re- 

 garded as a great curiosity both by 

 Air. Hawley's neighbors and by my 



A CONXECTICUT OPOSSUM. 



Captured by Mr. Paul Lockwood at Long Ridge, 



Connecticut, and now in Arcadia's pet house. 



own, the general opinion being that 

 it must have been a pet that had man- 

 aged to escape from captivity only to 

 meet its death in a trap set for a 

 skunk. 



Four or five years from that time 1 

 received through the mail an urgent 

 request to come to Bedford, which is 

 in New York just over the state line, 

 a young lad having caught a silver 

 fox. This latter animal which is very 

 valuable is entirely unknown in this 

 section, so 1 immediately came to the 

 conclusion that the lad had caught a- 

 gray fox which is common and very 

 cheap. Nevertheless I made the trio 

 to Bedford and found that the lad's 

 capture was an opossum. From that 

 time to this I have known hardly a 

 season in which these animals have 

 not been found, and in increasing num- 

 bers, so that during the past season 

 some twenty or thirty pelts were 

 bought besides a couple of live ones 

 which I brought home and sold to 

 neighbors who were interested. 



One of these persistently refused to 

 eat until at last it died from starvation, 

 while the other, evidently of a more 



