OPOSSUMS. 261 



up and sold in the natural color, but they take a brilliant 

 dye, and the fur becomes soft and silky in the process. 



Cook's Phalanger, generally called the Ring-tail Opossum, 

 is a small animal only six inches long, with a tail twice the 

 length of its body. The fine soft fur is a rich blue on the 

 back, and a pure white on the belly; like the "Adelaide 

 Opossum," it has very much the appearance of chinchilla, 

 and is sometimes used for making small articles of fur wear. 



The skin of the Great Flying Phalanger (Petaurus-aus- 

 tralis), is too thin to allow of its being used for fur pur- 

 poses, but mounted specimens of this animal are often seen 

 in museums. 



THE OPOSSUM. 



Of all the Marsupials the Opossum approaches most 

 closely to the typical mammal in the structure of its 

 reproductive organs; and while fossils show that the 

 different families of Australian Marsupials are of com- 

 paratively recent origin, the American Implacentals are 

 represented amongst the earliest mammalian fossils. 



Some of the family Didelphidae, which includes all the 

 American Marsupials, are very small and few of them 

 attain the size of a cat. They feed chiefly on insects, but 

 will also eat small reptiles, birds and eggs. The Water 

 Opossum (Chironectes) differs entirely in habits from the 

 other species of the family, and has the webbed feet 

 necessary for an aquatic existence. The other species, 

 all belonging to the genus Didelphy, are arboreal and 

 more or less nocturnal and while some are provided with 

 a pouch, others are destitute of it. 



The Virginian Opossum (Didelphys-virginiana) is one 

 of the largest members of the family and has a well 

 developed pouch, as have also the species found in Brazil. 

 It has an elongated muzzle that makes its head appear 

 large in proportion to the rest of its body although the 

 brain cavity is small. The tail is scaly like a rat's, 

 except at the root, and the black ears are naked, resem- 

 bling a bat's wing. The feet, which are naked on the 

 under surface, each have five toes, the inner toes of the 

 hind feet being opposable. 



The general color of the woolly fur is a yellowish grey 

 or grizzly, caused by the white underwool showing through 

 black or brownish top hairs. 



