The Opossums 



carnivorous, others herbivorous and still others like our opossum 

 omnivorous. 



As before stated we have only one group of marsupials in 

 America, the opossums ( Family Didelphidce) . 



THE OPOSSUMS 



Family Didelpbidce 



Virginia Opossum 



Didelphis virginiana Kerr 



Length. 27 inches. 



Description. Hair long and rather coarse; general colour grayish 

 white, caused by a mingling of black-tipped white under fur with 

 long white overlying hairs; legs brownish black, feet black, toes 

 white; head, throat and middle of lower parts white; ears naked, 

 black with white tips; tail prehensile, nearly naked, black at the 

 base, shading into dull flesh colour. (Illustrations facing pp. 8, 9, 

 24, and 25.) 



Range. Southern and Middle States, except in the mountains, north 

 to the Hudson and Connecticut valleys and to southern 

 Illinois, not ranging north of what is known as the "Caro- 

 linian Fauna." In Florida and Texas slightly different 

 varieties occur. 



The opossum is our only representative of that remarkable 

 class of beasts in which the young are born at such an early 

 and undeveloped stage that the mother is obliged to carry them 

 about in her pocket for several weeks; when first born a kan- 

 garoo, an opossum and a mouse are of very nearly the same 

 size, about half an inch in length, 



A mother opossum takes her half-dozen or more infants as 

 fast as they are born and drops them into her pouch, where 

 each seizes a teat and holds on; its mouth, which at first is open 

 almost to the angle of the jaws, rapidly contracts and grows 

 together when once it has taken hold of that which it is in- 

 stinctively feeling for from the very first, and for the next few 

 weeks the little family of brothers and sisters do nothing but 

 ileep and grow, the old one forcing her milk into their mouths. 



