518 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



seldom they are met with during the day, as they, when sleeping- 

 in trees, lie so closely to the branch on which they rest as to 

 escaj^e observation. The opossum moves with great facility 

 among trees, and not unfrequently captures birds while sitting 

 on their nests. On birds and their eggs and young they rely 

 mainly for food. The mother carries her young with her in a 

 pouch peculiar to the order, and when the young fill this pouch 

 to its utmost capacity, they still move freely about trees. Occa- 

 sionally they hang from a limb, head downwards, holding on by^ 

 a turn and a half of their tails. After the persimmons have 

 been touched with the frost and lost their excessive astringency, 

 the opossum feeds upon them very greedily, and a ' possum 

 hunt ' by moonlight is most successful when they are sought for 

 among persimmon trees. Although it occasionally happens that 

 poultry is attacked by these animals, such is so seldom the case 

 that it is hardly just to them to say they are an offensive animal."' 



Ox^ASS AVES. 



Birds.' 



Section SOA/VSORES. 



Climbing Birds. 



Order PICI. 

 Family PICID-ffi. 



Woodpeckers. 



DRYOBATES, Boie. 



(Picus, L.) 

 D. villosus, L. Big Sap-sucker. Hairy Woodpecker. 



Spotted and lengthwise streaked, but not banded ; back black,, 

 with a long white stripe ; outer tail feathers wholly white. 

 Length, 9 inches; tail, 3^ inches. Male with a scarlet nuchal 

 band. 



* Kidgway's Manual of North American Birds has been followed in the nomencla- 

 ture of the families and smaller groups. 



