Marsupials and Monotremes 



377 



Photo by W. Samlle-Kent, F.Z.S.] 



BANDED ANT-EATEK. 



[MUfonl-on-St' 



From an anatomical point of view, this is one of the most remarkable of the pouched 



mammals. 



THE AMERICAN OPOSSUMS. 



The little group of the 

 American marsupials contains 

 some three or four generically 

 distinct types whose relation- 

 ship with the Australian 

 members of the order is in 

 the direction of the dasyures 

 and bandicoots rather than 

 with the kangaroos and 

 phalangers. Included in one 

 family, they are popularly 

 known as Opossums, but differ 

 among themselves very consider- 

 ably both in aspect and habits. 

 The most remarkable among 

 them is undoubtedly the so- 

 called YAPOCK, or WATER- 

 OPOSSUM, an inhabitant of South America, and ranging in its distribution from Guatemala to 

 Brazil. In both form and habits this animal so closely resembles an otter that it was referred 

 by the earlier naturalists to the Otter Tribe. It tunnels holes in the banks of the rivers it 

 frequents, and feeds entirely upon fish, Crustacea, and aquatic insects. The feet, and more 

 especially the hind ones, are distinctly webbed ; the tail is naked, scaly, and non-prehensile ; 

 and the fur is short and thick, as in the ordinary otters. The ground-tint of the fur is a 

 light grey : this is diversified by a black or dark brown stripe that runs down the centre of 

 the back, and expands over the shoulders, loins, and hindquarters into saddle-shaped patches 

 or bands of the same dark hue. 



The COMMON or VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM, while the only representative of the Marsupial Order 

 found in the temperate latitudes of the North American Continent, has a very considerable 

 range of distribution, occurring in equal abundance throughout the tropical regions of South 

 America. In these warmer latitudes it differs to such an extent in the character of its 

 fur and other minor points that it was for some ' time regarded as a distinct species, and 

 was distinguished by the title of the CRAB-EATING OPOSSUM. Biologists are, however, now 

 agreed that the supposed species is only a local variety. As a matter of fact, a very consider- 

 able amount of variation in the colour and markings is found to exist among the individuals 

 of the most familiarly known northern race. In form the animal may be suitably compared 

 to a huge rat, nearly equalling a cat in size, with an abnormally large head and pointed 

 snout. The tail is long, almost naked for the greater portion of its length, and pre-eminently 

 prehensile. The fur is of a mixed character, consisting of an undergrowth of a fine, close, 

 woolly texture, through which protrudes a less dense series of long bristle-like hairs. The 

 colour of the fur ranges from black to white, and includes all varieties of intermixture. The 

 face, more especially in the northern race, is usually much the lightest or altogether white, 

 while in the tropical South American examples it is more often darker, or it may be 

 completely black. 



The opossum, like the rat, is an omnivorous feeder ; and being of so much larger size, and 

 possessing an insatiable appetite, constitutes itself a veritable pest to the fruit-grower, the 

 agriculturist, and the poultry-farmer. In effecting its entrance to hen-roosts or other food- 

 yielding enclosures, it exhibits an amount of cunning and pertinacity possessed by no other 

 mammal. Caught red-handed in these depredations, it has recourse to stratagems which 

 have won for it a reputation that has long since passed into a household word. Feigning 

 death, or "playing 'possum," is a game at which it is well known to be a past-master, but by 



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