'Mi) 



OPOSSUM. 

 Didelpbis marsupialis viiginiana. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Variable in size; weight from six to ten pounds; measures 

 from twenty to thirty-two from end of pointed snout to tip of 

 the tail; the tail, about as long as the head and body, is very 

 flexible and, except at the base which is hairy, is covered with 

 scales, which enable the 'possum to cling with absolute security 

 to the limbs, amongst which he climbs with great dexterity. The 

 eyes are brown. Fur of body is quite soft, and woolly, thickly 

 sprinkled with long white and blackish hair that gives the 

 animal a shaggy dress. Sides of head, face, throat and chin, 

 whitish, with a more or less brownish area about the eyes; 

 legs and feet blackish brown; the ears, conspicuous, rounded 

 and lengthened, are dark-colored and naked; belly whitish. 

 The long white and blackish hairs of the body give the animal a 

 frosted, dusky appearance. In antediluvian times when father 

 Noah "lived and built himself a bark," 'tis said, the 'possum 

 had long and numerous hairs covering his long and tapering 

 tail; such a condition does not now exist, and this nakedness 

 has been facetiously accounted for in the following stanzas, 

 taken from Mr. A. M. Bray ton's report:* 



WHY DB HA'R IS MISSIN'. 



Go 'way fiddle — folks is tired a-hearin' you a-squawkiii'. 

 Keep silence for your betters — don't you hear de bango talkin,? 

 About de 'possum's tail she's gwine to lecter — ladies, listen! — 

 About de ha'r what isn't dar, an' why de ha'r is missin'. 



De ark she keeps a sailin', an' a sailin', an' a sailin'; 



De lion got his dander up, an' like to bruk de' palin' — 



De sarpints hissed — de painter yelled — tell, what wi'd all de 



fussin'. 

 You c'u'dn't hardly heah de mate a-bossin' roun' an' cussln'. 



Now Ham, de only nigger what was runnin' on de packet. 

 Got lonesome in de barber shop, an c'u'dn't stan' de racket; 

 An' so for to amuse he-self, he steamed some wood an' bent It, 

 An' soon he had a bango made — de fust dat was invented. 



He wet de ledder, stretched it on, made bridge, an' screws, an' 



apron; 

 An' fitted in a proper neck — 'twas very long an' tap'rin'. 

 He tuk some tin, an* twisted him a thimble for to ring it; 

 An' de mighty question riz, how was he gwine to string it? 



♦Report of Geolog. Sur. of Ohio, Vol. IV. Zoology, page 170, 

 as a quotation from Scribner's Monthly, January, 18'78. 



