106 



MARSUPIALIA. 



leave the pouch of the parent and are carried on her back, where 

 they hold themselves by entwining their prehensile tails around 

 that of the parent. (See Plate V. fig. 7.) The species best known 

 is the common Opossum, D. Virginiana, of the United States, 

 as early as 1649 thus described : " This beast hath a bagge un- 

 der her bellie, into which she taketh her young ones, if at any 

 time they be affryghted, and carry eth them away." The food 

 of the Opossum is roots, poultry, and wild fruits. Like the spi- 

 der monkeys,, this animal uses the tail for climbing and swinging 

 from branch to branch ; it crawls slowly on the earth. When 

 attacked it will feign itself dead, and no. beating will induce it to 

 show any signs of life. Even dogs are deceived, and turning it 

 over, pass it by, The initiated determine whether it be alive or 

 not " by the appearance of the last joint of the tail, which is 

 never relaxed." From its assuming a feigned character, any 

 adroit cheat, or sly deceitful acting, is said to be " possuming," 

 or " playing possum." It has been said, "if a cat has nine lives, 

 this creature surely has nineteen ; for if you break every bone 

 in their skin and mash their skull, leaving them for dead, you 

 may come an hour after and they will be gone quite away, or 

 perhaps you may meet them creeping away." (Lawson.) The 

 color of the Opossum is greyish white, darker along the sides ; 

 the flesh is very white and well tasted ; for this it is hunted, but 

 not for its fur. When disturbed or alarmed it gives out a very 

 unpleasant odor. 



The Virginia Opossum is about the size of a domestic cat. Its 

 hair is of two kinds ; the lowest a long woolly down, brownish at 

 the tip, through which pass the long hairs of a pure white on 

 the head, neck, and upper parts of the body. The tail 

 is not so long as the body, covered at the base by long hairs, but 

 only scantily furnished with bristles which come out from be- 

 tween the whitish scales that protect it for the greater part of its 

 length. 



III. Family, the CARPOPHAGA, (Gr. xagnog, Icarpos, fruit ; 

 qpayoj, phago, to eat.) FRUIT EATERS have large and long inci- 

 sors in both jaws ; the canines sometimes wanting, and a still 

 longer intestinal canal. They resemble the squirrel tribe, but 

 are more closely related to the Kangaroos, the Kangaroo-rats, 

 (Hypsiprimnus, Gr. "vywyviuvog, hupsiprimnos, high extremity 

 or stern,) affording the connecting link. 



Of this family are the PHALANGERS, Phalangista, (Gr. <falay%, 

 phalanx, plu. yctlayyeg, phalanges, small bones of the hands or 

 toes, (see Plate III. figs. 3 and 4.) These are so named because 

 they have the second and third toes of the hind feet united as far 



