456 THE OPOSSUM. 



more merciful or more prudent, the opossum might have been kept with- 

 in the woods, where it would have been satisfied with a squirrel, a young 

 hare, the eggs of a Turkey, or the grapes that so profusely adorn the 

 boughs of our forest trees. But I talk to you in vain. 



There cannot be a better exemplification of maternal tenderness than 

 the female oppossum. Just peep into that curious sack in which the 

 young are concealed, each attached to a teat. The kind mother not only 

 nourishes them with care, but preserves them from their enemies ; she 

 moves with them as the shark does with its progeny, and now, aloft on 

 the tulip tree, she hides among the thick foliage. By the end of two 

 months they begin to shift for themselves ; each has been taught its par- 

 ticular lesson, and must now practise it. 



But suppose the farmer has surprised an Opossum in the act of kill- 

 ing one of his best fowls. His angry feelings urge him to kick the poor 

 beast, which, conscious of its inability to resist, rolls off like a ball. The 

 more the farmer rages, the more reluctant is the animal to manifest re- 

 sentment ; at last there it lies, not dead, but exhausted, its jaws open, its 

 tongue extended, its eye dimmed ; and there it would lie until the bottle- 

 fly should come to deposit its eggs, did not its tormentor at length walk 

 ofi^. " Surely," says he to himself, " the beast must be dead." But no, 

 reader, it is only " 'possuming," and no sooner has its enemy withdrawn, 

 than it gradually gets on its legs, and once more makes for the woods. 



Once, while descending the Mississippi, in a sluggish flat-bottomed 

 boat, expressly for the purpose of studying those objects of nature more 

 nearly connected with my favourite pursuits, I chanced to meet with two 

 well-grown Opossums, and brought them alive to the " ark." The poor 

 things were placed on the roof or deck, and were immediately assailed by 

 the crew, when, following their natural instinct, they lay as if quite dead. 

 An experiment was suggested, and both were thrown overboard. On 

 striking the water, and for a few moments after, neither evinced the least 

 disposition to move ; but finding their situation desperate, they began to 

 swim towards our uncouth rudder, which was formed of a long slender 

 tree, extending from the middle of the boat thirty feet beyond its stern. 

 They both got upon it, were taken up, and afterwards let loose in their 

 native woods. 



In the year 1829, I was in a portion of Lower Louisiana, where the 

 Opossum abounds at all seasons, and having been asked by the President 

 and the Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, to forward hve 



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