Tin: OPOSSUM. 245 



of suffocation is avoided by the elongated and conical form 

 of the upper extremity of the larynx, which is embraced by 

 the sofl palate, as in the i, and thus respiration 



on freely, while the milk passi -. on each side of the laryn- 

 geal cone, into the oesophagus." (Huxley.) 



Long after the young are weaned, and when they are 

 partly grown, they run into the pouch upon the approach 

 of danger, or enter il w hen tired, and, i here safely enscon 



ping "in to see if the danger is past, they present a 

 comical sight. 



The lowesl marsupial is the Tasmanian wolf, which is 

 rather smaller than the true wolf. The Tasmanian devil 

 i-; a virions creature, troublesome to settlers; ii is about 

 the rize of a badger. 



The opossums inhabil North and South America. They 

 have a lmi-'. nearly naked, scaly tail, and they walk, like 

 hoars, on the sole <»f the whole foot. The s] range in 



size from being a little larger than a mouse to the 

 a cat, and they live on birds and their eggs, reptiles and 

 insects. The Virginian opossum {Didelplnjs Virginia . 

 Pig. 285) lives i a- the mosl part in trees. Lawson says 

 that "the female doubtless breeds her young at her t> 

 for I have Been them stick fasl thereto when they have been 

 no bigger than a small raspberry and seemingly inanimate. 

 She has a paunch, or false belly, wherein she carries her 

 young after they are from those teats, till they can shift 

 themselves. Their food is roots, poultry, or wild fru -. 

 They have no hair on their tads, bul a t a sea 



hard crust, as the beavers have. If a eat has nine lives, 

 this creature surely has nineteen; for if you break « 

 hone in their skin and mash their skull, leaving them for 

 dead, you ma\ come an hour after and they will begone 

 • [iiite away, or perhaps you may meet them creeping aw 

 (• Perfect Description of V nia," 1649.)* 



*Gosse, in hi- "Letters from Alabama," thus describes tbis ani- 

 mal's trick of "playing 'possum." The creature had been worried 



