DOES THE OPOSSUM PLAY '"POSSUM"? 87 



pouch, I removed one, by detaching it from the teat, in 

 order to ascertain if the movement of the foetus was in- 

 stinctive. I found that it was at least partly voluntary, 

 as it made an effort to regain its place in the pouch, and 

 the same movement was made by the parent, as at first, to 

 receive it. I did not notice any use of the lirnbs or lips 

 of the parent during the transfer of the young." 



A few words in conclusion, concerning the supposed 

 peculiarity of the opossum in feigning death when cap- 

 tured. 



As the result of the systematic and rational study of 

 animals has been to realize that animal and vegetable life 

 is but an uninterrupted series of forms, from the lowest 

 to the highest and most complex organisms, there has 

 been a tendency to see, in the phenomena exhibited by 

 lower organisms, merely a modified condition of that 

 which man, the highest organism, habitually exhibits un- 

 der like circumstances. While admitting that man has 

 no power, or gift, so called, not directly derived from the 

 lower forms of animal life, may it not be that, in observ- 

 ing the habits of such lower forms as come under our 

 notice, we are sometimes misled by making personal 

 comparisons ? and what a man might do, or probably or 

 undoubtedly would do, under given circumstances, is not 

 what the observed lower form of animal is doing, in spite 

 of appearances to the contrary. I have been led to this 

 conclusion by the patient and cautious study of the habits 

 of the opossum as it is now found in the immediate 

 vicinity of thickly-settled districts, where but little cover 

 is afforded, and where its limited ingenuity is wholly re- 

 quired to make good use of that which remains. 



"While the habits of all the mammals still found in 

 settled and cultivated districts, unless it be the mice and 

 moles, are doubtless more or less modified by the extra 



