• OPOSSUMS. 87 



feller" of the blacks.) When the aborigines 

 observe marks of the animal's claws upon the 

 bark of a tree, they ascend and search in the 

 hollows of the trunk, drag the creature from its 

 place of concealment, (where it remains during 

 the day, feeding at night,) and killing it, convert 

 its carcase into a meal to satisfy their appetites ; 

 indeed, even when the blacks have been well fed 

 by the settlers, they seldom refrain from ascend- 

 ing after an opossum, if they observe recent 

 tracks of one on the trunk of a tree, which their 

 keen vision soon enables them to do. The 

 stomachs of these animals were distended with 

 clover, grass, and the young leaves of the euca- 

 lypti trees. The odour which emanated from 

 their bodies during dissection was of that cam- 

 phorated kind which might be expected to pro- 

 abdomen was of a yellowish white colour ; near the feet the 

 fur is short, of a dirty yellow colour, with brownish patches ; 

 the colour is similar under the chin, throat, and angles of the 

 jaw ; the upper part of the ears is nearly bare ; the thumbs 

 of the hind feet have no claw, but the fore-feet are penta- 

 dactyle, and armed with sharp claws ; the four toes of the 

 hind-feet are also armed with claws, the first dividing into 

 two phalanges, each having a claw. The young specimen 

 differed from this only in having a yellowish tinge mixed with 

 the grey over the back, legs, and abdomen ; angles of the jaw 

 and throat of a brownish yellow ; the under portion about the 

 eyes and upper part of the head of a yellowish colour. 



