434 HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 



cepting a small part near the body, which is cover- 

 ed with -hair; its legs are short; and its feet or 

 hands not unlike those of a Monkey, having five 

 toes or fingers on each ; the thumbs on the hind 

 feet are destitute of nails. But the peculiar and 

 distinguishing characteristic of the Opossum is a 

 pouch or false belly, in which the female deposits 

 her young immediately after they are brought forth, 

 and nourishes them in it till they are able to pro- 

 vide for themselves. 



The Chevalier d'Aboville, whilst in America, 

 during the late war, in order to be satisfied respect- 

 ing the time of its gestation, manner of bringing 

 forth, and suckling its young, procured a male and 

 female Opossum, which he tamed, and kept in his 

 chamber till they copulated. Ten days after, he 

 observed a considerable alteration in the size and 

 form of the pouch ; its aperture being wider than it 

 w r as before, and its orifice thicker: from that time 

 it gradually grew closer, leaving only a small 

 opening in the middle, similar to a navel: on the 

 fifteenth day he introduced his finger, and found at 

 the bottom of the bag a small round body, about 

 the size of a pea : the twenty-fifth day he could feel 

 a motion under his finger. After the young had 

 been a month in the pouch, they were plainly to be 

 seen, on opening it a little. At the end of two 

 months, on examining the pouch, there appeared to 

 be six young ones, all of them attached to the 

 mother by a canal that entered the mouth, which, if 

 withdrawn, could not be replaced; but when six 

 weeks old, the young Opossum could resume it by 

 strong suction, the mouth being then large enough 

 to receive the pap, which is about two lines in length, 

 and the size of the second or third string of a violin. 



