1 88 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



of the food habits of the various species, but also because the flesh of 

 some of them is prized and their pelts find a ready market. The actual 

 reported sales of marsupial skins during the seasons of 1919, 1920 and 

 1921 were as follows: 1 



American opossum 9,987,742 



Australian opossum 4,265,621 



Wallaby (kangaroo) 1,722,588 



Ring-tailed opossum (phalanger) 1,321,625 



Wombat 208,977 



Kangaroo 41,238 



Kolinsky (Koala) 1,151, 553 



The American opossum is found in 29 states of the United States. 

 It is partially protected by law in 20 states, with close seasons of 

 from two to four and one-half months each year. 2 Its combined value 

 because of its fur and highly prized flesh makes it worthy of protec- 

 tion elsewhere. Kansas produced 350,286 opossum skins during the 

 trapping season of 1927-1928 for which dealers paid $35O,ooo. 3 It is 

 nearly omnivorous, its diet including eggs, young birds, young rabbits, 

 mice, rats, and other rodents, all sorts of small game, many kinds of 

 insects, crustaceans, mollusks, frogs, salamanders, mushrooms, musk- 

 melons, vegetables and fruits of many kinds, bacon, carrion and what- 

 ever else is conveniently at hand. 4 One stomach of the Florida opossum 

 (Didelphis virginiana plgra Bangs) contained a horned lizard and bird 

 feathers, besides meat used for trap bait ; two stomachs were filled with 

 crayfish, one was full of carrion from a dead hog, and in another were 

 traces of maggots and carrion. It feeds extensively on crayfish and other 

 crustaceans. The Virginia opossum (D. virginiana virginiana Kerr) is 

 especially fond of chickens and eggs and in summer feeds extensively 

 on fruit. 5 An opossum in captivity ate a blacksnake three feet and eight 

 inches long. 6 Such damage as they do in occasional raids upon smoke- 

 houses and henhouses may be prevented by proper precautions in the 

 construction and care of the buildings, and their destruction of wild 

 birds is not anywhere serious enough to balance the value of their flesh 

 and skins. 



1 Osborn and Anthony, Journ. Mammalogy, m, 226, 1922; Natural History, xxii, 

 393, 1922. Compare Innis, The fur trade of Canada, table opp. p. 76, 1927. 



2 Ashbrook, Journ. Mammalogy, vi, 168-173, 1925. 



3 Dose, Kansas Fish and Game, No. 2, p. 67, 1928. 



4 Lincecum, The opossum, Amer. Naturalist, vi, 555-557, 1872. Howell, N. Amer. 

 Fauna, No. 45, p. 18, 1921. Hahn, sjrd Ann. Rept. Indiana Dept. Geol. and Natural 

 Resources, p. 451, 1909. 



5 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 25, pp. 56-57, 1905. 



6 Lewis, Opossum in captivity, Journ. Mammalogy, x, 167-168, 1929. 



