86 Life of Audubon, 



dog. Its movements are rather slow — it travels across 

 the snow-covered ground about as fast as a man could 

 walk — snuffing at every step for traces of the prey it 

 searches after. Entering some cranny, it pulls out a 

 squirrel it has killed, and climbing a tree, secretes itself 

 among the thick branches to eat its repast. Exhausted 

 by hunger in the early spring, the opossum will eat young 

 frogs, and the green growth of nettles and other succulent 

 plants. Unscared by the watchful crows the farmer has 

 killed, the pest creeps into the hen-house, eats the chickens, 

 robs the hen of the eggs she is sitting upon, and commits 

 its devastations with address and adroitness. Prowling 

 about after sunset, it avoids all sorts of precautions, and 

 defies the farmer's guns and curs alike. In the woods it 

 eats the eggs of the wild turkey, and ravenously devours 

 the grapes of the grapevine. When attacked, it rolls itself 

 up like a ball, submits to be kicked and maltreated with- 

 out moving, feigns death, lies on the ground with shut 

 eyes, and cheats its assailants into the belief that it has 

 been destroyed. When its assailant has gone, life seem- 

 ingly suddenly returns, and regaining its feet, it scampers 

 off to the wilds. 



" Once while descending the Mississippi in a sluggish 

 flat-bottomed boat, expressly for the purpose of studying 

 those objects of nature more nearly connected with my 

 favorite pursuits, I chanced to meet with two well-grown 

 opossums, and brought them alive to the *ark.' The 

 poor things were placed on the roof or deck, and were 

 immediately assailed by the crew, when, following their 

 natural instinct, they lay as if quite dead. An experiment 

 was suggested, and both were thrown overboard. On 

 striking the water, and for a few moments after, neither 

 evinced the least disposition to move ; but finding their 

 situation desperate, they began to swim towards our 

 uncouth rudder, which was formed of a long slender tree, 



