98 



WINTER 



and the reptiles in some respects, are perhaps the 

 lowest and the oldest of all the mammals. 



The 'possum, therefore, is one of the most primi- 

 tive of mammals, and dates as far back as the reptilian 

 r\ age, when only traces of mammalian 

 life are to be found, the 'possum's 

 fossil ancestors 

 being among the 

 notable of these 

 early remains. 

 The mammals 



have just said, 

 were only partly mammal, for they were partly bird 

 or reptile, as the duck-bill and ant-eater still are. 

 Now the 'possum does not lay eggs as these other 

 two do, for its young are born, not hatched ; yet so 

 tiny and undeveloped are they when born, that they 

 must be put into their mother's pouch and nursed, 

 as eggs are put into a nest and brooded until they 

 are hatched really born a second time. 



For here in their mother's pouch they are like 

 chicks in the shell, and quite as helpless. It is five 

 weeks before they can stick their heads out and take 

 a look at the world. 



No other mammalian baby is so much of a baby 

 and yet comes so near to being no baby at all. It is 

 less than an inch long when put into the pouch, and 

 it weighs only four grains ! Four grains ? Think how 



