OPOSSUM HUNTING 105 



from their shucks, and we never left the spot until 

 every piece of that stump large enough to contain a 

 beetle had been split open. 



They were certainly the most lustrous insects I had 

 ever found. In different lights they looked green, red, 

 or golden. The males were the most splendid, the pre- 

 dominating color being gold. 



The females were smaller, with more green, red, and 

 blue on their hard, shelly coverings. We found the 

 larva, a white grub, which bored holes in the punk, 

 and filled them up with the refuse as it went on. One 

 or two other stumps contained the beetles, but none 

 where we found more than two or three. 



We went off with Barelli one bright moonlight night 

 after opossums (Phalangista). He, Barelli, had a 

 little clog, which could find the animals faster than we 

 could shoot them. As soon as the dog barked, we 

 started for the spot, and always found him sitting 

 under a tree, looking up into it. Getting the tree 

 between ourselves and the moon, we could soon see 

 the opossum, and bring him down. We had shot 

 seven or eight opossums, three native cats (Dasyurus*), 

 spotted pouched mammals, so named, I should ima- 

 gine, from their dissimilarity, rather than their resem- 

 blance, to that domestic animal, and were on our 

 way home, when we came to a very high tree, with a 

 large animal crouching near the top. I put a handful 

 of buckshot into each barrel, and let him have it. The 



