210 THE VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM. 



habits, are rarel}^ killed in the daytime. These are 

 hunted chiefly by young white lads upon the planta- 

 tions for the fun of it, and by the negroes for the fun 

 and meat together. 



Now and then some very enthusiastic hunter con- 

 descends to bring his knowledge of woodcraft to bear 

 upon those inferior animals, the racoon and opossum; 

 but this is only the case where the hunting instinct is 

 very strong indeed — so strong that it would lead a 

 salmon-fisher to fish for sticklebacks in a brook if de- 

 prived of his more noble pursuit. 



The opossum is one of the most singular and inex- 

 plicable little animals existing. In length of body it is 

 from twelve to fifteen inches, and the tail is about as 

 much more ; the tail looks like that of a huge rat, and 

 is destitute of hair. The hair of the body is grey, 

 white, and brown, and this mixture gives it generally 

 a blue tinge. The ears are thin and crumpled, and 

 look very much like two little bits of a blue kid glove, 

 and are also bare of hair. The feet are naked and 

 long, and have a peculiar hand-like appearance. The 

 eyes are very prominent, and as there are no eyelids 

 worth mentioning, they have the appearance of two 

 black beads stuck on the face. These are not very 

 powerful by daylight, and even bright moonlight nights 

 seem too much for them, as very often they are per- 

 ceived and killed before they seem to know that anyone 

 is near them. The jaws are long and furnished with 



