268 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, 
Old; for no species of this latter family has yet been 
discovered in the Western Hemisphere. Like them 
they secrete a strongly odoriferous fluid, pass the day 
in a state approaching to torpidity, prowl abroad during 
the night, and prey upon birds and the smaller quadru- 
peds, frequently making the poultry-yard the scene of 
their devastations, and sucking the blood of their victim 
before gorging themselves upon its flesh. In the ab- 
sence of more noble game, they make prey even of 
reptiles and msects; and fruits and other vegetable 
substances afford a common addition to their varied 
diet. But unlike the Civets they live almost entirely 
upon the trees, the peculiar conformation of their hinder 
hands, and the prehensile character of their naked tail, 
rendering them most admirable climbers. These tails 
are also of essential service in another point of view, 
the little ones when frightened leapmg upon their 
mother’s back, twisting their tails round hers, and in 
this singular fashion escaping with her assistance from 
the threatened danger. 
The Virginian Opossum is one of the largest species 
of the group, being im size fully equal to the domestic 
eat. It belongs to that division of the genus in which 
the pouch beneath the belly of the adult females forms 
a perfect sac, completely enclosing the young from the 
period when they first become attached to the teat until 
they are able to shift for themselves. Its general colour 
is of a dull white, the hair with which it is covered 
being of two different kinds. That which more imme- 
diately invests the body is a long, fine, woolly down, 
white at the base with brownish tips; through which 
pass the still longer hairs of a pure white from which 
the colour of the animal is principally derived. On the 
head, neck, and under parts of the body the hair is 
short and close; a brownish circle surrounds each eye ; 
