164 



race, is, according to Professor Baird, smaller and darker, with the head 

 dusky above and below, and the tail as long as the trunk and head. This 

 form replaces the eastern in Texas and California, and south to the city 

 of Mexico. 



Description and Habits. — One's iirst impression of the Opossum is so 

 graphically described by Audubon and Bachman, that I transcribe them 

 at length : 



" We cau imagine to ourselves the surprise with ■which the Opossum was regarded by 

 Europeaua when they first saw it. Scarcely anything was known of marsupial animals, 

 as New Holland had not as yet opened its unrivaled stores of curiosities to astonish 

 the world. Here was a strange animal, with the head and ears of a pig, sometimes hang- 

 ing on the limb of a tree, and occasionally swinging like the monkey by the tail. Around 

 that prehensile appendage, a dozen sharp-nosed sleek-headed young had entwined their 

 tails, and were sitting on their mother's "back ! 



" The astonished traveler approaches this extraordinary compound of an animal, and 

 touches it cautiously with a stick. Instantly it seems to be struck with some mortal dis- 

 ease ; its eyes close, it falls to the ground, ceases to move, and appears to be dead ! He 

 turns it on its back, and perceives on its stomach a strange and apparently artificial 

 opening. He puts his finger into the extraordinary pocket, and lo ! another brood of a 

 dozen or more young, scarcely larger than a pea, are hanging in clusters on the teats. 

 In pulling the creature about in great umazement, he suddenly receives a grip on the 

 hand — the twinkling of the half-closed eye and the breathing of the creature evince that 

 it is not dead, and'he aJds a new term to the vocabulary of his language, that of 'play- 

 ing possum.' 



"The whole structure of the Opossum is admirably adapted to the wants of a sluggish 

 animal. It possesses strong powers of smell which aid it in the search for food; its 

 mouth is capacious, and its jaws, possessing a greater number and variety of teeth than 

 any other of our animals, indicate its omnivorous habits ; its fore paws, tliough not 

 arojed with retractile claws, aid in seizing its prey, and conveying it to the mouth. The 

 coLstruction of the hind foot, with the soft yielding tubercles on the palms, and its long 

 uaillesa opposing thumb, enable it to use these feet as hands, and the prehensile tail aids 

 it in boldiijg On to the branches of trees, whilst its body is swinging in the air; in this 

 '!i\auiier wti have observed it gathering persimmons with its mouth and fore paws, and 

 devoniini; t.hem while its head was downward, and its body suspended in the air, hold- 

 ing on sumetimes with its hind feet and tall, but often by the tail alone." 



The Opossum is nocturnal like most predacious animals. Where it 

 abounds, ib may nearly always be found, on bright starlight or moonlight 

 ■nights, when the weather is warm and calm, hunting its nightly range 

 in search of food. Its gait is rather slow, heavy, and awkward, truly 

 plantigrade, an amble or pace, advancing the two legs on the same side 

 at the same instant. It travels no more than its appetite demands, rarely 

 making a circle of more than a mile in a single night. The Opossum is 

 not often met in cold or stormy nights. In spring and summer it is 

 sometimes met with by day, especially is this so in places where it is not 

 often molested. 



