62 MOUNT KOSCIUSKO AND AUSTRALIAN ALPS 



numbers by the colonists, and are a great attraction to all 

 kinds of marauders — human and animal. 



The opossum, so called, is the common phalanger 

 ( Trichosurus vulpeculd) of naturalists : but this term is also 

 applied by the colonists to the phascologale, which is a 

 much smaller animal, not larger than the European 

 brown rat. 



The common opossum {Trichosurus) is found abun- 

 dantly in nearly every part of the continent ; and is often 

 considered by the colonists to be only second to the rabbits 

 and kangaroos in the mischief it does them. Sometimes 

 swarms of them, evidently performing a partial migration 

 in search of food, appear in a district ; and at night-time 

 they leave the trees, and run over, and into, everything 

 about the nearest homesteads. Into the barns and open 

 windows they find their way, eating and destroying in an 

 extraordinary way every kind of fruit or grain food they 

 can find. Though, like the rabbit, they never seem to 

 drink, they eject a foul-smelling fluid over corn and bread 

 and whatever they touch, rendering everything quite uneat- 

 able, and arousing the squatters' ire to an extent that only 

 a 'possum and a new chum can provoke it. Whatever 

 mischief is done in house or barn is always laid on the 

 back of a 'possum, or a new chum. Organised shooting 

 parties are therefore assembled when the 'possums become 

 troublesome ; or the station blacks are paid so much per 

 dozen for their skins. Still, like the rabbits, they thrive 

 under persecution ; and they are one of the few Australian 

 mammals which show no sign of diminished numbers, in 

 spite of incessant slaying and trapping on the part of white 

 men and black. 



The 'possum is roasted and made into pies, like the 

 rabbit, and eaten with avidity by the lower classes of 

 whites, and by the blacks ; but it is not equal in flavour to 

 the latter animal. If not habitually omnivorous, it certainly 

 is not a strictly vegetarian animal, and its diet is made up 

 largely of portions of any eatable articles that come in its 

 way. Like rats and mice, it will nibble boots and other 

 leather articles, and make unsightly breaches in cheese and 



