A Good Habit Gone Wrong 

 f 



TAKE him by and large probably none 

 of our American animals is more inter- 

 esting to a thoughtful person than the 

 gray, grunting, snarling, pilfering, dunder- 

 headed and motherly creature which the south- 

 ern Indians told us was an opossum. John 

 Smith reported among the wonders of Vir- 

 ginia : " The opassam hath a head like a Swine, 

 a tayle like a Bat, as bigge as a Cat, and hath 

 under her belly a Bag wherein she carrieth her 

 Young." No need for mistake in identifying 

 this creature, though in respect to some of the 

 other " marvels " of those early reporters nat- 

 uralists are guessing yet. 



It was the distinction of our opossum to be 

 the first of all marsupials to be brought to the 

 knowledge of the civilized world, and some of 

 the early notions as to the method of its novel 

 reproduction are among the most grotesque 

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