OPOSSUM FAMILY 



297 



molest it if they supposed it to be dead. It is 

 a habit that mihtates against its safety, and 

 could never have been acquired in its present 

 environment. Speed, if exercised, would in 

 many cases insure safety, and the Opossum can 

 run when it chooses to make the effort. 



" Whatever the origin of the habit, if such it 

 is, it cannot be logically regarded as voluntary. 

 The brain of the Opossum is too primitive to 

 have evolved this degree of cunning, forethought 

 and contrivance." 



In order to test the supposed habit, I have 

 sought them out in their hiding places and en- 

 deavored to make them " show off." In one 

 case an Opossum was captured in a box trap. 

 On lifting the lid of the trap, the animal was 

 found to be curled up into a form as nearly 

 globular as possible. Being disturbed, it slowly 

 raised its head, opened its mouth, but did not 

 offer to bite, and in this po.ution it quietly 

 awaited coming events. After some five minutes 

 of mutual staring, the Opossum closed its mouth 

 and slowly restored its head to a more easy 

 position, and even closed one eye, as though the 

 other was all that was necessary to note what 

 might occur. On being roughly handled and 

 given several pushes with a stick, it again opened 

 wide its mouth and protested against the dis- 

 turbance by a low, hissing sound, but did not 

 uncoil its body. 



If the animal at that time realized that it 

 was a prisoner, it certainly did not fear death, 

 for it made no effort to escape, which fear of 

 death would cause it to do, since it was in no 

 way disabled. After waiting an hour, and seeing 

 no signs of feigning unconsciousness, but, instead 

 of it, a most provoking indifference, I walked 

 off some distance to a point where I could see 

 the trap, but was myself hidden from the Opos- 

 sum. Fully ten minutes elapsed before I saw 

 any movement on the part of the animal, and 

 then it was a very gradual uncoiling of the body, 

 a protracted yawn, a stretching of the limbs, and 

 then, standing up, he looked about and very 

 deliberately walked off. I ran toward him, 

 seizing him by the tail, whereupon he recoiled 

 his body and spread his jaws to the utmost. 

 When I threatened violent blows about his head, 

 it slowly sank, and the eyes closed, bvit this was 

 not a feigned act. The breathing was affected, 

 the surface temperature of the body was lowered. 



and I believe it was a true faint. Furthermore, 

 as in fainting, the application of cold water had 

 the effect of restoring the animal to conscious- 

 ness. I have made scores of experiments of 

 this kind, when the fainting through fear was 

 more sudden, and in no experiments have I 

 seen anything to suggest intentional feigning of 

 death. 



REALIZATION 



Baked 'Possum and Sweet Potato are the joy of the Southern 

 darky 



Another observer, in speaking of the Opossums 

 in the Southern States " being attacked by turkey 

 buzzards, and going into ' spasms,' during which 

 the buzzards injured the eyes of the Opossums 

 and otherwise wounded them," says, " this being 

 the ordinary result of a ' make-believe,' would 

 even as foolish a creature as the Opossum long 

 continue it?" S. A. Lottridge. 



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