373 



until his puisui'ers leave. When dogs are with hun- 

 ters and the latter come to the tree which the Opos- 

 sum occupies, a shot-gun ends the hunt. Sometimes 

 the Opossum is slialien from his refuge and the dogs 

 speedilj kill him. However, it is much easier to talk 

 about shaking 'possums and 'coons from trees, than it 

 is to do it. 



A VERITABLE CURIOSITY. 



"We can imagine to ourselves the surprise with which the 

 Opossum was regarded by Europeans when they first saw it. 

 Scarcely anything was known of marsupial animals, as New 

 Holland had not as yet opened its unrivaled stores of curiosi- 

 ties to astonish the world. Here was a strange animal, with 

 the head and ears of a pig, sometimes hanging on the limb of 

 a tree, and occasionally swinging like the monkey by the tail. 

 Around that prehensile appendage, a dozen sharp-nosed sleek- 

 headed young had entwined their tails and were sitting on 

 their mother's back. 



"The astonished traveler approaches this extraordinary com- 

 pound of an animal, and touches it cautiously with a stick. 

 Instantly it seems to be struck with some mortal disease; its 

 eyes close, it falls to the ground, ceases to move, and appears 

 to be dead! He turns it on its back, and perceives on its stom- 

 ach a strange and apparently artificial opening. He puts his 

 finger into the extraordinary pocket, and lo! another brood of 

 a dozen or more young, scarcely larger than a pea, are hanging 

 in clusters on the teats. In pulling the creature about in great 

 amazement, he suddenly receives a grip on the hand — a twink- 

 ling of the half-closed eye and the breathing of the creaturo 

 evince that it is not dead, and he adds a new term to the voca- 

 bularly of his language, that of 'playing 'possum'." 



WISE PROVISIONS OF NATURE. 



"The whole structure of the Opossum is admirably adapted 

 to the wants of a sluggish animal. It possesses strong powers 

 of smell which aid it in the search for food; its mouth is capa- 

 cious, and its jaws, possessing a greater number and variety 

 of teeth than any other of our mammals, indicate its omnivor- 

 ous habits: its fore paws, though not armed with retractile 

 claws, aid in seizing its prey, and conveying it to th^ mMnth 



