ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 61 



unhurt and ready to run away the instant it can be done 

 safely ; and it is said that no infliction of pain will make him 

 shew the least signs of life. This is what is called " playing 

 possum " in the West, a saying which has become almost 

 universal. 



The Opossums are very tenacious of life, a fact which has 

 led to a Virginian proverb, " If a cat has nine lives, an 

 opossum has nineteen." They treat their young with the 

 greatest affection, receiving them into their wonted place of 

 protection on the least alarm, and when there is not time for 

 this, the little ones wind their tails around that of the mother, 

 and thus all escape. They do not drink by lapping, but by 

 suction. There is not much probability of the species becom- 

 ing extinct, as the young amount to from twelve to sixteen 

 at a birth, and their nocturnal habits do not require them to 

 remove far from the haunts of men. 



The Grlires or Rodentia constitute the next family, so 

 called from the two large cutting teeth found in each jaw. 

 They have no canine teeth ; live almost exclusively on vege- 

 table food ; have two incisors in each jaw, large, strong, and 

 remote from the grinders. This order comprises a great 

 number of the smaller quadrupeds. Of these, THE BEAVER 

 ( Castor Fiber,') is the most useful to man. 



Description. Fur dense, body thick and clumsy, head 

 broad and conical, eyes small and black, ears short and 

 rounded, and almost concealed in the fur ; tail broad, flat- 

 tened, oval, naked, and scaly ; back arched. 



The Beaver is an animal possessed of a large amount of 

 instinct ; but though Buffon and many early writers have made 

 it appear endowed with extraordinary sagacity, a rational 

 view shows us, that it is not more blessed than any animal in 

 its own sphere. The greater part of its history as generally 

 accepted and related is fabulous ; and it is only from the 

 most authentic sources that we get a reliable account of its 

 habits. The construction of dams by them is so well known 



