496 THE CRAB-EATING OPOSSUM. 
Tn forming an appropriate receptacle for her young, the Opossum is assisted by her fore- 
feet, which are well adapted for digging. The nest itself is composed of long moss and 
various dried leaves. Sometimes the creature has been known to usurp the “domicile of 
some other animal, not without suspicion of having previously devoured the rightful 
owner. On one occasion a hunter sent a rifle-ball through a squirrel’s nest, which was 
placed at some forty feet from the ground, and was surprised to see an Opossum fall dead 
on the ground. This creature has also been known to possess itself of the warm nest of 
the Florida rat. 
When the young of the Opossum are born, they are transferred by the mother to her 
eradle-pouch, where they remain for some weeks. From repeated experiments that have 
been made on this animal, it is found that the transfer is made on the fifteenth day after 
the young have been called into existence, and that at that period they only weigh four 
grains, their total length being under an inch, the tail included. Their number is from 
thirteen to fifteen. After they are placed in the pouch, their growth is wonderfully rapid, 
for in seven days they have sated so much substance as to weigh thirty grains ; and even 
at this early period of their existence their tails exhibit the prehensile capacity, and are 
often found coiled round each other's bodies. In four weeks the little Opossums have 
gained sufficient strength to put their heads out of the pouch, and at the end of the 
fifth week they are ab le to leave it entirely for a short time. 
Very great trouble was required in order to ascertain these particulars, as it was found 
that the Opossum was in the habit of hiding herself in her den until she had placed her 
young in the pouch, so that it was needful to search the cavity for these concealed females, 
and to watch their proceedings by night and day without intermission. 
There are one or two circumstances in connexion with this subject that are well 
worthy of attention. 
The young Opossums are not, as has been often asserted, mere helpless lumps of 
animated substances, without sense or power of determinate action, but are wonderfully 
active in proportion to their minute size and their undeveloped state. If placed upon a 
table, they can crawl about its surface, and are sufficiently hardy to retain life for several 
hours after their removal from the warm cradle in which their tender bodies were shielded 
from harm, and the maternal fount which poured a constant stream of nourishment into 
their tiny systems. 
Another singular circumstance is, that when they are first placed in the pouch, they 
are blind and deaf, the eyes and ears being closed, and not opened until many days have 
elapsed. With partial blindness at the time of birth we are all familiar in the persons of 
kittens, puppies, and other little animals, but that the tender young of the Opossum 
should be deaf as well as blind, is truly singular. It appears that in the case of the kitten 
or puppy, the presence of ght and the action of the atmosphere are needed in order to 
withdraw the obstacles that obstruct the sense of vision. In the young Opossum, how- 
ever, it seems that the action of the atmosphere is needed in order to render the ears 
sensitive to the sounds that are transmitted through its mediumship, but that in most 
cases the little creature requires the absence of light until the time comes for it to open 
its eyes as well as its ears. 
What length of time elapses between the period of transmission into the pouch and 
the several opening of eyes and ears is not, I believe, as yet clearly ascertained, and would 
furnish an interesting subject for investigation. I would also suggest that the blood of 
the young animal be “carefully examined in three of its stages, viz. just before it is born, 
immediately after bemg placed in the pouch, and after the period when the eyes and ears 
are opened, in order to ascertain whether any important change, chemical or otherwise, 
has been made in that liquid by the double action of air and light. 
The (>AB-EATING OpossuM is not so large an animal as the Virginian Opossum, being 
only thi. ‘~ thirty-one inches in total length, the head and body measuring sixteen 
inches, a.. the tail fifteen. It can also be distinguished from the preceding animal by 
the darker jue of its fur, the attenuated head, and the uniformly coloured ears, which are 
generally “slack, but are sometimes of a yellowish tint. 7 
