26 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



are also much worse provided with the means of defence, 

 than these animals. They run badly, and though their mouth 

 is extremely large, and well furnished with teeth, yet it is 

 deficient in strength, and they are wanting in that intelli- 

 gence, which might render it an efficient weapon against 

 their enemies. They attempt to bite the stick which strikes 

 them, but not the arm which guides it; very different in 

 this respect from most other mammalia, which, by a very 

 remarkable act of intelligence, distinguish the person from 

 the instrument which he uses, and invariably attack the 

 former. Their chief resource of defence, seems to consist 

 in the disagreeable odour which they exhale when they find 

 themselves in danger- M. D'Azara, who speaks of it from 

 experience, declares it to be really insupportable. 



All their desires seem feeble, even that of re-production. 

 We have already cited the interesting observations of M. 

 D'Aboville on this subject, and our opinion that it involves 

 a problem, of which naturalists have not yet obtained the 

 solution. 



A young male Opossum in the French menagerie, would 

 suffer, any one to touch him without the least resistance, 

 and continually endeavoured to avoid the light. When his 

 wish was opposed, he would open his large mouth, and 

 hold it in that gaping position without doing any thing 

 more. This organ, so powerful a weapon with most of the 

 carnassiers, seems in the Opossum to be but a simple in- 

 strument of mastication. 



The body of this animal was generally of a greyish yel- 

 low, except that some hairs, entirely black, with others en- 

 tirely white, gave a blackish tint to the dorsal line, and a 

 narrow band descending from the neck on the fore-legs. 

 These last, and the hinder were almost entirely covered 

 with black hairs, and the tail furnished with scales, formed 

 of the epidermis, had only some short and scanty hairs 

 springing between these scales. The hands, ears, and ex- 



