258 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



any other animal with which we are acquaint- 

 ed. "When it is shaken from a tree and falls 

 among grass and shrubbery, or when detected 

 in such situations, it doubles itself into a heap 

 and feigns death so artfully, that we have 

 known some schoolboys carrying home for 

 a quarter of a mile an individual of this 

 species, stating that when they first saw it, it 

 was running on the ground, and they could not 

 tell what had killed it. We would not, how- 

 ever, advise that the hand should on such 

 occasions be suffered to come too familiarly 

 in contact with the mouth, lest the too curi- 

 ous meddler should on a sudden be startled 

 with an unexpected and unwelcome gripe. 



The opossum is easily domesticated when 

 captured young. We have, in endeavouring to 

 investigate one of the very extraordinary char- 

 acteristics of this species, preserved a consider- 

 able number in confinement, and our experi- 

 ments were continued through a succession of 

 years. Their nocturnal habits were in a con- 

 siderable degree relinquished, and they followed 

 the servants about the premises, becoming 

 troublesome b}^ their familiarity and their 

 mischievous habits. They associated familiarly 

 with a dog on the premises, which seemed to 

 regard them as necessary appendages of the 

 motley group that constituted the family of 



