594 



THE POUCHED ANIMALS. 



their grubs, even worms; and in default of animal 

 food it contents itself with vegetable substances, 

 such as maize and nourishing roots. It prefers blood 

 to any other food and therefore it slays with inde- 

 scribable bloodthirstiness whenever it can do so. In 

 the poultry yards it often kills all the fowls and then 

 sucks their blood only without touching the flesh. 

 It is said to "become so gorged with the blood, as 

 Martens do, that one sometimes finds it in the morn- 

 ing, sleeping among the dead fowls. Cautious in 

 general, it becomes blind and deaf when it can 

 assuage its thirst for blood; forgetting all danger 

 and without desisting from its murderous purpose, 

 it unresistingly suffers itself to be killed by Dogs or 

 by the enraged farmer. 

 The Opossum as It is not easily killed, however, for 



an Expert in an Opossum is very tenacious of life, 

 Deceit. an( ] re sorts to dissimulation when 



very hard pressed. " Conscious of its inability to 

 resist," says Audubon, " it rolls up like a ball. The 

 more the farmer rages the more reluctant is the 

 animal to manifest resentment; at last there it lies, 

 not dead but exhausted, its jaws open, its tongue 

 extended, its eyes dimmed; and there it would lie 

 until the Bottle-fly should come to deposit its 

 eggs in its carcass did not its tormentor walk off. 

 'Surely,' says he to himself, 'the beast must be 

 dead.' But no, reader, it is only ' 'possuming,' and 

 no sooner has the enemy withdrawn, than it grad- 

 ually gets on its legs and once more makes for 

 the woods." 



The Opossum is extensively hunted chiefly on 

 account of the havoc it works among poultry. The 

 Negroes are particular enemies of the animal and kill 

 it whenever and wherever they can. The flesh is 

 unpalatable to most white persons, for two glands 

 impart an exceedingly strong and repellant odor of 

 garlic to it, but the Negroes seem to like it and the 

 flesh repays them for the trouble of the pursuit. 



The ways of a captive Opossum are hardly inter- 

 esting to the observer. I must say from my own 

 experience that the animal is even more tiresome 

 than other predaceous Pouched Animals. Rolled up 

 and motionless, it lies in its cage all day, and only 

 when one provokes it, does it make the slightest 

 movement. It opens its mouth as wide as possible, 

 and for as long a time as one stands before it, as if 

 it suffered from lock-jaw. It is lazy and sleepy and 

 appears to be disgustingly stupid. 



THE PHILANDERS. 



The subgenus Philander differs from the Opos- 

 sums proper mainly by reason of the imperfect 

 pouch of the female. This pouch is formed by two 

 cutaneous folds, which are laid over the unformed 

 young attached to the mammae. 



Description of the The largest species of this subgenus 

 Crab-Eating and one of the largest Opossums in 

 Opossum. general, is the Crab-eating Opossum 

 (Philander philander) . The body is nine and one- 

 half inches long, and the tail nearly thirteen inches. 

 The thick, soft, woolly hair is dingy, yellowish or 



reddish gray, yellow beneath. The pale gray face is 

 marked with a brown median line and dark circles 

 around the eyes, while the terminal half of the tail 

 has a whitish appearance. 



The Crab-eating Opossum has a wide geograph- 

 ical range, extending perhaps throughout all of trop- 

 ical America. It is numerous in the woods of Bra- 

 zil, affecting the proximity of swamps, which furnish 

 it with Crabs. It lives almost exclusively on trees, 

 and descends to the ground only when it wishes to 

 forage. Its tail is prehensile and entirely naked, 

 aiding it in climbing. On the ground it proceeds 

 slowly and awkwardly; yet it knows how to entrap 

 smaller mammals, reptiles and insects, and especially 

 Crabs, its favorite food. In the trees it preys on 

 birds and their nests; but it also eats fruit, like the 

 Opossum and its kin. It is said to also visit poultry 

 yards occasionally and cause great devastations 

 among Chickens and Pigeons. The young of the 

 Crab-eating Opossum differ in color from the old 

 animals. They are completely naked at birth, but 

 when they are sufficiently developed to leave the 

 pouch, they grow a short, silky fur of a shining nut- 

 brown color, which gradually deepens into the dark 

 brownish black color of maturity. All observers 

 agree that the little creatures escape from the pouch 

 and, moving around and upon the mother's body, 

 afford a charming spectacle. 



THE WATER OPOSSUM. 



The second genus of the family is represented by 

 the only Pouched Animal, which so far is known to 

 have aquatic habits, the Water Opossum or Yapock 

 ( Chironectcs minimus ) . 



Character and Do- The animal has, on the whole, the 

 ings of the Water appearance of a Rat. The tail is 

 Opossum. nearly as long as the body, and pre- 



hensile, though it probably is not used for grasping 

 objects. The fur is of a beautiful ashy gray hue on the 

 back, sharply defined from the white under surface. 

 Six black, broad transverse stripes mark the back. 

 A dark band runs along the course of the spine 

 from one stripe to another. The ears and tail are 

 black. The body of an adult animal is about sixteen 

 inches long, and the tail measures the same. 



The Water Opossum is distributed over a great 

 part of the South American belt. It is found from 

 Guatemala to southern Brazil, but seems to be every- 

 where of rare occurrence, or at least to be obtained 

 with difficulty, and is therefore found in few collec- 

 tions. It is said to prosecute its search for food by 

 day as well as by night, to swim with ease and to 

 proceed quickly and readily on land. The food is 

 said to consist of small fish and other small aquatic 

 animals and of spawn; yet the large cheek- pouches 

 seem to indicate that the Yapock does not disdain 

 vegetable food. 



The female gives birth to about five young, which 

 complete their development in the pouch; she leads 

 them to the water rather early and instructs them for 

 some time in swimming, diving and the art of acquir- 

 ing food. 



