DISCUSSION OF SPECIES. 
POUCHED ANIMALS. 
MARSUPIALIA. 
OPOSSUM. 
Didelphys virginiana Kerr. 
(Animal Kingdom, 1792, p. 193.) 
Under natural conditions the opossum was an animal of the 
woods and not of the prairie section, being especially abundant in 
the belts of heavy timber along the rivers; but as with advancing 
civilization these woods have been thinned out, and, on the other 
hand, as more shelter is furnished by groves, orchards, hedges, etc., 
it is possible that, though fewer in number, opossums have become 
more generally spread over the country than under original condi- 
tions. Although it can hardly be said of them in our vicinity that 
they are ‘‘equally at home in the lumber piles and hen-roosts of the 
town or among the untrodden haunts of the wilderness,” they are 
nevertheless occasional visitors to farmyards and hen-roosts in the 
vicinity of our towns. 
In their diet they are well nigh omnivorous, showing a decided 
preference, however, for eggs, young birds, and certain wild fruits, 
as persimmons and papaws. They also eat nuts, insects, and small 
animals, and, when pressed by hunger, they may feed on carrion. 
The range of the opossum is throughout the eastern half of the 
United States north to the Great Lakes. It has been taken in 
New York at Schoharie, in Cayuga county, and near Rochester; 
near Erie in Pennsylvania, Ann Arbor in Michigan, and in the 
southern tier of counties in Wisconsin. It is common in eastern 
Kansas, and has been taken in Texas at Mason, San Antonio, and 
near Matagorda Bay. It is also found on Long Island, and has been 
introduced in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Its range to the 
northeast has apparently increased during recent times, it having 
entered New York from the south and spread to the limits men- 
tioned above. 
