THE OPOSSUM FAMILY 189 



general settlement of that country and the systematic kill- 

 ing of the animals for their skins, which are used as leather 

 for shoes, have so greatly reduced the number that now one 

 must go far inland in order to find them wild. 



Few persons, I venture to say, have the slightest concep- 

 tion of the number of Kangaroo and Wallaby skins annually 

 consumed by the leather trade for shoe uppers, as they are 

 soft and not given to cracking. One firm in New York handles 

 about 72,000 per year. In 1911 and 1912 C. M. Lampson & Co. 

 of London sold the following: 



1911 1912 



Australian Wallaby Skins 1,003,820 540,608 



Australian Kangaroo Skins 21,648 16,193 



1,025,468 556,801 



Most pouched mammals are strictly herbivorous, but 

 some, like the opossum and Tasmanian wolf, are true flesh- 

 eaters. 



THE OPOSSUM FAMILY 



Didelphyidae 



The New World contains more than twenty species of 

 omnivorous animals, varying in size from a large cat to a small 

 rat, mostly provided with long, hairless tails that are fully 

 prehensile, and always well clad with fine and abundant 

 hair. In all species save a few the female possesses the 

 abdominal pouch to which every marsupial female is entitled. 

 In some species, however, it is either rudimentary or wholly 

 lacking. These animals are the OPOSSUMS, and while the 

 majority of the species are confined to South America, our 



