94 RECORDS OF THE AtTSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



The animal is usually a lowly builder, especially if a thick bush 

 be selected, the nest may then be within seven or eight feet of 

 the ground. In more open foliage it may be raised twenty or 

 even thirty feet : in such cases a more careful attempt is made 

 to conceal the structure, hanging bark, drooping moss, or a mass 

 of foliage being pressed into service. 



The nest is carefully and neatly made. It has for foundation 

 small sticks from which finer twigs are carried upwards and 

 brought together in the form of an elongated dome. An aperture 

 is provided at one end through which the .animal gains access ; 

 thus giving a bottle-like appearance to the fabrication. Leaves, 

 grasses, and mosses are skilfully woven into the structure, the 

 mouth excepted ; this is narrowed and projects somewhat, and is 

 usually composed of naked twigs alone. The interior is smoothly 

 lined with fine grasses, and the whole forms a compact and fairly 

 firm structure. 



We have recently received from Mr. J. M. Cantle a drey of 

 this Opossum, wherein the usual type has been considerably de- 

 parted from. Grasses and mosses have been entirely discarded, 

 and their place supplied by the fronds of ferns. Ferns only are 

 to be seen within, but I am inclined to think that the drey was 

 not quite completed and that a smoother lining would have been 

 provided. Mr. Thomas Whitelegge has identified the fronds as 

 wholly of P(!!em esculenta, Forst. This example measures : — Length, 

 14 inches ; breadth, 11 inches ; greatest circumference, 36 inches. 



The drey is occupied only by the female ; but whether the male 

 also takes part in its construction, I have been unable to learn. 

 If any of my readers have made observations on this or any other 

 matter connected with the animal, I shall be pleased to hear from 

 them. 



Although one usually associates the drey as a habitation of the 

 female while carrying young in her pouch, it would appear, as I 

 learn from one or two sources, that the young are occasionally 

 left in the drey during the absence of the mother, and Mr. R. 

 Grant tells me that he once kept alive, two young Opossums 

 which he obtained under such circumstances. 



If disturbed in her retreat, the mother may become very 

 savage. On one occasion Mr. J. A. Thorpe having too incautiously 

 sought to investigate the nest, received very severe wounds — the 

 animal making its teeth meet in the fleshy pai't of the hand. This 

 nest was placed in a small Eucalypt, and was reached from the 

 ground by bending down the branches. 



It remains to be mentioned that the Ring-tailed Opossum does 

 not enjoy a monopoly in nest making among members of the genus 

 Pseudochirus. As described elsewhere in this publication (p. 91), 

 such a habit is practised by P. herhertensis, var. colletti, the nest 

 differing only, as far as we know, in being more ball-like in shape. 



