THE OPOSSUMS 



99 



some partly in it, and others having their heads just 

 within the hairy margins of its entrance. 



These young opossums were extremely difficult to 

 photograph from the fact that they were so restless 

 when taken away from their mother; they were not 

 sprightly at all simply sluggishly on the move; first 

 gaping, then twitching their ears, or curling up their 

 tails. Finally, when kept from the mother too long, 

 they would commence to shiver all over. 



If there be such a thing in nature as "a chip of 

 the old block," then we must assuredly find it in the 

 young opossum any one of these little fellows was the 

 veriest "chip" alive of its sleepy, old parent. It would 

 walk along a twig just as the mother progressed upon 

 a larger branch, holding on in the same curious manner 



black, and twinkling. The mouth has a capacious gape, 

 and the entire face and snout are pointed as in the old 

 one. By the use of the tail and feet, these young opos- 

 sums are able to hang onto the coat of the mother ; and 

 when they all get into the hair of her back, they present 

 a very odd and amusing picture, to say nothing of the 

 enjoyment they exhibit howbeit, it was shown in such 

 a sleepy way. 



Mr. A. Radclyffe Dugmore gives an account of two 

 of these animals that enjoyed a friendly ramble about 

 the barnyard of a farm during a gray day, when the 

 farmer and others had gone to the polls to vote, and 

 there were none about to interrupt their investigations. 

 The animals are designated as 'Possum One and 'Possum 

 , Two, and the sequel goes to show that in reality they 



A PAIR OF VIRGINIA EXPERTS AT THEIR OLD GAME OF "PLAYING 'POSSUM." PHOTO FROM LIFE BY MR. RADCLYFFE 



DUGMORE. COURTESY OF DOUBLEDAY PAGE AND COMPANY. 



Fig. 7. The animal to the left has the appearance of being as dead as dead can be, while its companion is taking a peep to ascertain whether his 



ruse is going to save him from his fate. 



with its hand-like feet. While thus engaged, its little 

 prehensile tail also came into use; it would curl the deli- 

 cate end of it about a twig in a gingerly way with 

 evident infantile misgivings as to whether it could be 

 relied upon in case its tiny feet became exhausted. Dur- 

 ing the daytime they were continually gaping, making 

 the most ludicrous faces while doing so, and exciting 

 to laughter all that beheld them. 



At this age their marsupial pouches are quite rudi- 

 mentary, but still perfectly evident, while the bushy 

 extension of the hair at the root of the tail is distinctly 

 seen. The hair of the body is long and coarse, being 

 much shorter and finer upon the head, while it is sparse 

 and extremely fine on the rather large, white ears. Long 

 white hairs are produced from either side of the snout 

 and from above either eye, the latter being round, large, 



were not altogether as safe from interruptions as they 

 thought themselves to be, when they first sallied forth 

 to enjoy their sociable raid, for presently one of the 

 farm-hands came walking down the pathway. "At this 

 moment the 'possums made another mistake, for the man 

 would probably have passed them unnoticed had they 

 not snarled and thereby attracted his attention. 



"Now it happened that the man was not an American, 

 and in that accidental fact lay the 'possums' one chance 

 for escape. An American farm-hand would have pick- 

 ed up a fence-rail and with it promptly ended the lives 

 of the 'darn little varmints,' who, even though they were 

 thieves, stole only that they might live. But the man 

 was an Irishman, fresh from St. Patrick's Isle. He 

 had never seen a 'possum, nor did he know anything 

 of their peculiar ways. Only the week before he had 



