NATURAL HISTORY. 87 



do, that is, making it a support for its young, who sit on its 

 back and twist their tails round their mother's in order to 

 * prevent them from falling off. Lawson, in a passage quoted 

 in the Museum of Animated Nature, gives the following quaint 

 account of this animal : " If a cat has nine lives this creature 

 surely has nineteen ; for if you break every bone in their skin 

 and mash their skull, leaving them for dead, you may come an 

 hour after, and they will be quite gone away, or, perhaps, you 

 may meet them creeping away. I have for necessity in the 

 wilderness eaten of them. Their flesh is very white and well- 

 tasted ; but their ugly tails put me out of conceit with that 

 fare." 



The length of the Opossum is about twenty-two inches, and 

 its height about that of an ordinary cat. "When disturbed or 

 alarmed, it gives out a very unpleasant odour. 

 Several genera are omitted. 



Family V ... Phocidfe. (Gr. QUKT}, a Seal. Seal kind.) 

 Sub-family b. Phocina. 



Vitullna (Lat. belonging to a calf), the Seal. 



The COMMON SEAL inhabits the coast of Europe, and is not 

 imfrequently found in many parts of the Scottish coasts, 

 where seal-hunting is a favourite amusement. The young 

 are taken by stretching nets across the narrow straits which 



