MEEIAN'S OPOSSUM. 149 



woolly, but the general character of the fur is harsh and coarse. The 

 scaly portion of the tail is white. 



It is a voracious and destructive animal, prowling about during the 

 hours of darkness, and prying into every nook and corner in hope of 

 finding something that may satisfy the cravings of imperious hunger. 

 Young birds, eggs, the smaller quadrupeds — such as young rabbits, 

 which it eats by the brood at a time, cotton rats, and mice — reptiles of 

 various kinds, and insects, fall victims to the appetite of the Virginian 

 Opossum, which is often not content with the food whichjt finds in the 

 open forests, but must needs insinuate itself into the poultry-yard and 

 make a meal on the fovvls and their eggs. 



Besides the varied animal diet in which the Opossum indulges, it also 

 eats vegetable substances, committing as much havoc among plantations 

 and fruit trees as among rabbits and poultry. It is very fond of maize, 

 procuring the coveted food by climbing the tall stems, or by biting them 

 across and breaking them down. It also eats acorns, beech-nuts, chest- 

 nuts, and wild berries, while its fondness for the fruit of the ** persim- 

 mon" tree is almost proverbial. While feeding on those fruits it has 

 been seen hanging by its tail, or its hinder paws, gathering the "per- 

 simmons " with its fore-pav^s, and eating them while thus suspended. 

 It also feeds on various roots, which it digs out of the ground with 

 ease. 



Its gait is usually slow and awkward, but when pursued it runs with 

 considerable speed, though in a sufficiently clumsy fiishion, caused by 

 its habit of usiug the limbs of the right and left sides simultaneously in 

 a kind of amble. As, moreover, the creature is plantigrade in its walk, 

 it may be imagined to be anything but elegant in its mode of progress 

 upon the ground. Although it is such an adept at " 'possuming," or 

 feigning death, it does not put this ruse in practice until it has used 

 every endeavor to elude its pursuers, and finds that it has no possibil- 

 ity of escape. It runs sulkily and sneakingly forward, looking on 

 every side for some convenient shelter, and seizing the first oppor- 

 tunity of slipping under cover. 



The nest of the Opossum is always made in some protected situation, 

 such as the hollow of a fallen or a standing tree, or under the shelter 

 of some old projecting roots. 



In Merian's Opossum there is no true pouch, and the place of that 

 curious structure is only indicated by a fold of skin, so that during the 

 infancy of its young the mother is obliged to have recourse to that sin- 

 gular custom which has gained for it the title of dorsigerus, or " back- 

 bearing." At a very early age the young Opossums are shifted to the 

 back of their mother, where they cling tightly to her fur with their 

 little hand-like feet, and further secure themselves by twining their 

 own tails round that of the parent. The little group which is here 



13* 



