32 MAMMALIA 



opossums for the Society, we fed them on carrots, boiled wheat, bread, 

 boiled tea-leaves with sugar, and anything sweet. 



The damage the opossums would do running at large would be very 

 little, seeing that they never come on to open country. The animal is blamed 

 for barking apple-trees, but the opossum does not bark a tree. He might 

 scratch the bark with his teeth, but he does not strip it off. The opossum 

 has one young one once a year. The young one is from five to six months 

 old before it leaves its mother, and is very nearly half-grown. The first 

 four months it is carried in its mother's pouch, and after it leaves the 

 pouch it rides on the mother's back, until it is able to look after itself. The 

 proper season for catching opossums would be from April to the end of 

 July; that would save destroying so many young ones. 



Mr Hurrell of Ararata (Hawera) tells me they are destructive to 

 fruit trees in his district, eating the shoots in spring-time and the fruit 

 in autumn. This applies to apples and plums. At Kawau, they were 

 reported as very destructive to the shoots of young plants, and to 

 fruit. 



Colonel Boscawen of Auckland, who is a most reliable authority, 

 states that as long as there is plenty of green stuff available, opossums 

 do not interfere with fruit, but that the damage they are often credited 

 with is the work of rats. 



On Kapiti Island they feed extensively on Kohekohe (Dysoxylum 

 spectabile), Mahoe (Melicytus ramiflortis), Passiflora tetrandra and 

 Fuchsia excorticata, trees of the latter species being sometimes com- 

 pletely destroyed by them. 



In " Nature Notes" in the Lyttelton Times of i9th October, 1912, 

 by Mr Jas. Drummond this passage occurs:. 



Mr A. J. Blakiston, Manager Orari Gorge Estate, South Canterbury, 

 where opossums are very plentiful, says: "My experience here is that they 

 do very little damage. The garden adjoins the native bush and in the fruit 

 season they eat and knock down some fruit, but do us no great harm." 



Mr Dudley le Souef, Director of the Zoological Gardens, Mel- 

 bourne, writes : 



Opossums are protected in Tasmania for half the year, in Victoria all 

 the year round, and in South Australia and New South Wales for half 

 the year during the breeding season. We find them only occasionally 

 troublesome in apple, pear and peach orchards; but as they are easily 

 snared and shot, one seldom hears of any complaints even from the large 

 orchard districts 1 . 



1 All orchardists are not of this opinion as the following extract from an Auckland 

 letter shows : 



" If you want to see how opossums and fruit trees thrive together, take a run 

 down to Motutapu. Opossums you will see, but it will need a guide to show you 

 where the fruit trees were planted. I have several acres in orchard, which today 

 is free from Opossums, and needs only the regular care to combat moth, scale, 

 scab, mildew, blight, dieback, fungus, leech, collar rot, birds, rabbits, picnickers 



