CHAPTER XL 



DOES THE OPOSSUM PLAY " 'POSSUM " ? 



AMONG the few mammals that have successfully with- 

 stood the encroachments of man upon their haunts, no 

 one is more interesting to me, in its habits generally, than 

 the well-known opossum. The earliest notice I find of 

 these animals is by Gabriel Thomas, who, in his sketch 

 of Pennsylvania and West New Jersey, published in 1698, 

 refers to " that strange Creature, the Possum, she having 

 a Belly to swallow her Young ones, by which means she 

 preserveth them from danger, when anything comes to 

 disturb them." On the other hand, Kalm appeal's to have 

 overlooked them, making no further reference to the 

 animal than to remark that " the opossum, like the otter, 

 can be tamed so as to follow people like a dog " a state- 

 ment that scarcely holds good of the opossums about here 

 to-day ! 



These animals, it has always appeared to me, are de- 

 void of cunning, even in choosing their nesting and rest- 

 ing places, and it has always been a mystery to me how 

 they have managed for so many years to escape extermi- 

 nation. Yet, stupid as they unquestionably are, they are 

 still abundant, even in the immediate vicinity of large 

 towns. Being of a low type of mammals, and characteristic 

 of an early geological epoch, are we to infer that their want 

 of cunning arises from this fact ? If so, it seems strange 

 that, through the inherited experiences of an immensely 



