CHAPTER VIII. 



MAESUPIALIA-THE OPOSSUM DESCRIPTION AND HAUNTS. RO- 

 DENTIA THE BEAVER, ITS HABITS, AND DESCRIPTION OF ITS 

 HOUSE AND DAM. THE MUSQUASH OR MUSKRAT AND ITS 

 PECULIARITIES. 



The Marsupialia or Pouched Animals, who get their name 

 from the Latin word marsupium, a bag, were entirely 

 unknown to the ancients, the Opossum being peculiar to 

 America, and the Kangaroo to New Holland. 



Description. About the size of the common cat; head like 

 a fox : ears large and naked : mouth deeply cut, opening 

 wide : tail long and tapering, hairy towards the body, the 

 remaining part covered with scales, prehensile : legs short, 

 color gray or mixture of black and white. 



The females of this species have underneath, a pouch 

 formed by an elongation or fold of the skin of the belly, 

 supported by two long bones connected with the muscles of 

 the belly, and articulated or jointed at the pubis. This 

 peculiar construction first occasioned their original describers 

 to be considered rather as inventors than trustworthy wit- 

 nesses, and it was a considerable time before they were 

 correctly represented. Buffon, though learnedly and elabo- 

 rately exposing the errors of other writers with respect to 

 this singular animal or class of animals, has himself given a 

 very inaccurate description of it, confounding the opossum 

 of Virginia with the Australian Kangaroo, but giving for 

 the former, a figure unlike either, though between both. 

 According to Demarest, they differ from all other animals in 

 the production of their young, which are apparently brought 

 forth premature ; for when first discovered in the external 

 pouch, they are incapable of movement, exhibiting but slight 



